I'd been watching this subject with great interest when MSFT first made the announcement several years ago. And watching hopefully, at that. XBox Live accounts for a large share of Netflix streaming usage, and in theory, MSFT could have developed shows the way Netflix is doing so. Unfortunately, as a lot of people in this space are learning, high-quality shows cost top dollar and take awhile to develop. They require a unified, sustained political commitment from the company, all the way up to top brass.
Netflix is able to develop shows because Netflix's core business model involves shows. Original/exclusive offerings are seen as key to maintaining its share of subscribers against would-be competitors. There is a direct correlation between Netflix's content selection and Netflix's subscriber base. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a much larger and more diversified business, with a more complex org structure. XBox is one division of many, and XBox Entertainment Studios was one group of many under the XBox aegis. It's hard to argue, at the C-level view, that XBox Entertainment Studios was core to Microsoft's business. And I can't imagine it was ever going to secure the sort of long-term, serious commitment that it required. In some ways that's a shame. In other ways, I totally get it.
Netflix is able to develop shows because Netflix's core business model involves shows. Original/exclusive offerings are seen as key to maintaining its share of subscribers against would-be competitors. There is a direct correlation between Netflix's content selection and Netflix's subscriber base. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a much larger and more diversified business, with a more complex org structure. XBox is one division of many, and XBox Entertainment Studios was one group of many under the XBox aegis. It's hard to argue, at the C-level view, that XBox Entertainment Studios was core to Microsoft's business. And I can't imagine it was ever going to secure the sort of long-term, serious commitment that it required. In some ways that's a shame. In other ways, I totally get it.