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Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997, ran it for nearly three decades, and says the company's real competitive threat today isn't Disney or any legacy studio — it's YouTube, which pays out roughly 60% of its revenue to three million paid creators.
Most of Hollywood has spent the streaming era worrying about losing to other studios. Reed told Kara Swisher, the journalist who hosts "On with Kara Swisher," that the bigger worry should be a platform that commissions nothing at all.
"The competition between Hollywood and Disney is all pretty stable. It's YouTube that's really gaining share. They don't commission content — people put it up on spec, and there's incredible amounts of creativity. They have three million paid creators fighting for attention."
Reed fully left Netflix's board this past June after nearly 30 years with the company, now sits on Anthropic's board, and funds charter-school and education-reform efforts as one of the largest individual donors in American education.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 56 minutes of audio, 8 minutes of reading.
Here are the 8 takeaways that matter.
On with Kara Swisher · Oct 26, 2026 · 56m · 48m saved
With Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and former Chairman of Netflix; board member, Anthropic
Key Takeaways
YouTube, not Hollywood, is Netflix's real competitor, Reed said — it shares about 60% of revenue with three million paid creators and commissions nothing
Netflix walked away from the Warner Bros. Discovery bid once the price exceeded sense — "chose not to," not "could not," Reed said
Reed learned about Netflix's own C-suite shakeup from the news, same as the public, after stepping off the board in June
AI's "classifiers" have made real progress blocking misuse over the last 18 months, Reed said, but he doubts self-policing alone is enough long-term
His one named priority for AI regulation is biosafety — requiring every frontier system be hardened against designing dangerous viruses
AI tutoring will eventually beat even the best human teacher, Reed argued, by giving every child the one-on-one attention a $100-an-hour tutor can't scale
He wants prominent tech leaders to simply stop talking and build instead — comparing tech's reputation problem to pharma's
1. The Shakeup, From Outside
Reed fully stepped away from Netflix's board this past June after nearly 30 years with the company. He learned about its recent C-suite shakeup — the departures of longtime content chief Bela Bajaria and film chief Dan Lin, plus roughly 1,000 job cuts — the same way everyone else did.
Reed learned about Netflix's own executive shakeup from the news, like any other outsider
"I read about all those changes. I heard about them first in the paper... I didn't know those were coming." — Reed Hastings
He said he isn't worried about the reorganization, calling his successors — co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters — highly competent and low-ego, and crediting the co-CEO arrangement to the specific chemistry between the two rather than a technique other companies could copy.
"Ted and Greg are so committed to success in the company and thinking company first. They're low ego. They work well together. I don't think it's a general technique." — Reed Hastings
