“Netflix won. … You are simply never going to beat Netflix. I do not think ever, unless they do something weird. I mean, truly weird, which they won't do. So that game, if you want to call it a game, is to me over.”
Recode Media · Media & Creator Economy · November 2026
Context
Peter Kafka pushed back that everyone else in media says they must get bigger to take on Netflix. Diller says the streaming contest is already decided, though a studio can still run a good, profitable business.
Transcript
…of concentration for scale i have never thought so long as you have sufficient scale to get your product out and get it distributed you don't need any More scale. Scale is not the answer to really much of anything. It is, it is not to me a determinant. So I don't really believe in consolidation.
You're really swimming against the tide there. Everyone says, no, no, we've got to be bigger to take on the Netflix as well. You don't have to
Netflix won. Now, that doesn't mean you can have a perfectly good and profitable and growing business. You are simply never going to beat Netflix. I do not think ever, unless they do something weird. I mean, truly weird, which they won't do. So that game, if you want to call it a game, is to me over. Now, does that mean you can't have wonderful, profitable businesses? And frankly, the more the better. It makes me sad. I ran 20th Century Fox for over eight years, and I adored the company. I adored what we did, both in the movie area and television area and building the broadcast company. And it no longer exists. 20th Century Fox is gone. I mean, yeah, there may be little pieces, remnants. Paramount, I suspect, notwithstanding, and I'm not predicting anything, but over time, I suspect Paramount will be gone.
Does it matter if Paramount, the brand, the company goes away, but they're still making stuff from that, the entity?
Well, no, you can't, whatever the commitments made to keep the same level of production, over time they'll make as many things as the market demands, notwithstanding what happened before. But the loss of, you know, when we had six major studios was a very healthy environment to make good stuff. And…
bubble that's deflated.
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