Entertainment Drugs Are Future the Says Reed Hastings

If Netflix’s CEO is right, your choice about a night’s source of entertainment will eventually come down to picking betwixt the red or blue pill rather than Black Mirror or Orange Is the New Black.

While speaking with WSJD Live about why Netflix’s streaming service is so popular and what’s to come, Reed Hastings theorized “entertainment drugs” might eventually become a competitor.

According to Reed — in addition to alternatives like VR and gaming — customers looking for a “substitute” for their favorite movies and shows might turn to “pharmacological” options.

“In twenty or fifty years, taking a personalized blue pill, you just hallucinate in an entertaining way, and then a white pill brings you back to normality is perfectly viable,” he said. “If the source of human entertainment in thirty or forty years is pharmacological we’ll be in real trouble.”

We’re not sure if “we’ll” referred to Netflix or humanity in general, but, either way, he’s correct.

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Evan Bleier

Evan is a senior editor with InsideHook who earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and has called Brooklyn home since 2006. A fan of Boston sports, Nashville hot chicken and Kentucky bourbon, Evan has had his work published in publications including “Maxim,” Bleacher Report and “The Daily Mail.”