Netflix Wins A Terrible Fight.

There is a funny thing about supply and demand. While it underpins the laws of economics and holds the equilibrium between willingness and ability, it is not a reliable indicator of quality.

The Jake Paul fight on Netflix is a great example. It was a terrible display of boxing, but millions of people tuned in- not for a demonstration of excellence of the sport, but the spectacle it promised and delivered.

For Netflix, this match up plus NFL games on Xmas represents nothing short of a masterclass in leveraging supply and demand to achieve its strategic ambitions.

As covered widely recently during its bid for WBDisco, Netflix growth has stalled.

And as the market matures, with HBO, NBCU, Disney, Amazon and YouTube all finding some serious footing in the streaming universe, Netflix can’t just sustain itself as the most expensive subscription service on the market. There is just too much high quality supply to sustain demand for its services at the existing price point.

Netflix thus needs to remake itself in the minds of consumers, and remind the marketplace of its relevance and indispensability, with no time to spare.

This is where Jake Paul, NFL and even cultural icons like Dave Chappelle come in. Instead of burning piles of cash on TV and social media ads to tell the world it matters with some sizzles and promos, Netflix is leaning into its strength— as a distributor, to show the world this is not the movie service you once loved, it is an essential entertainment service setting the pace.

So what if the Jake Paul match sucked, it did what TV does best and increasingly does less of, it brought a lot of people together for a social event and something to talk about the next day. And for Netflix, it expanded how people think of its service yet again.