Business July/August 2011  Why Content Isn’t King  Taylor
Callery  Netflix famously engenders fierce loyalty from its
ever-growing customer base. This year, it even beat out reigning
champion Apple, among 528 other brands, in Brand Keys’ annual
survey of customer loyalty. In more-rarefied circles, however,
the company provokes equally intense but quite different
emotional reactions. Among traditional-media executives and
investors who like to bet on the fall of high-flying stocks,
Netflix’s continual share-price appreciation and accelerating
subscriber growth have sparked aggravation and even anger. Last
December, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes famously likened the
relentless march of Netflix to the Albanian army’s trying to
“take over the world.” That same month, in a widely read
7,000-word missive, the respected investor Whitney Tilson
provided an exhaustive justification for making a huge bet
against Netflix, and then had to cover his short position after
the stock reached a new high a couple of months later.