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Netflix Needs Better IPs

Netflix Needs Better IPs

Netflix Needs To Buy IPs

October 12, 2021

If you didn't catch Disney's "What If..." season finale, stop reading right now and go do that. The finale brings the season together succinctly and with a huge entertainment factor, but also offers a proof case that the House of Mouse may understand original content far better than its rival Netflix.

Streamer's Spotlight: Is Disney+ Proving It's Better at Original Content?

Disney+ launched in November 2019 with great fanfare, but with a stunning lack of original content. In the two years since then, the company has leveraged its biggest and most popular IPs (Star Wars and Marvel) to create some incredible must-see TV. Meanwhile, in those same two years, Netflix's original content arm has struggled to create content that everyone's talking about, with the exception of the newly-hot Korean drama, 'Squid Game'.

1. Disney's History of Top Content Is Showing

Among the biggest feathers in its hat, undoubtedly, is that Disney has been producing content for nearly 100 years. That's not trivial. But just being a household name for generations doesn't automatically equate to a win.

Still, Disney has been proving that it understands the elements of entertainment in the streaming market as well. Since 2019, it's been putting out verified hits, including 'Wanda Vision', 'The

'Mandalorian', 'Loki', and 'What If...'. These shows were top hits in 2020 and 2021.

2. The Pandemic Isn't to Blame

One might argue that the pandemic is to blame. However, Disney was just as impacted by the pandemic as Netflix. Yet Netflix failed to put out buzz-worthy content during the past two years (again, with the exception of the recent 'Squid Game' series) that compared to what Disney+ has been doing.

The problem at Netflix appears to be something deeper than that. Is it a dearth of good ideas? Maybe. But more likely, it's the fact that in times like these, people have turned to what's familiar, and Netflix, for all its great IPs, does not own any popular TV and movie brands. That's Disney's strength, and it's going all-in on that to great effect.

3. Netflix Needs To Buy IPs

The issue with Netflix is that it's continuing to build pretty much everything it owns from scratch. That's great, but long-term IPs are proving to be effective, especially when their much-beloved and existing stories are expanded upon.

To gain ground on Disney+, or even Paramount+ (which owns Star Trek), Netflix needs to have the rights to something with a much longer history and a pre-existing fan base. From there, they need to not ruin it, and not do what Netflix tends to do too often, which is cancel shows too quickly.