By Sarah E. Needleman
Streaming video services are in fierce competition for more than
just eyeballs. They also are fighting for software engineers, data
scientists and other tech professionals at a time when joblessness
in the U.S., especially for computer-related work, is historically
low.
Fortune 500 companies such as Apple Inc., Walt Disney Co. and
AT&T Inc., and startups like Quibi Holdings LLC are
aggressively hiring to challenge incumbents Netflix Inc. and Hulu
Inc. Businesses that create and manage streaming apps on behalf of
third parties are also scrambling to hire tech talent.
"If you really understand streaming video, you can kind of write
your own ticket," says Jeremy Legg, technology chief of AT&T's
WarnerMedia, whose streaming properties include HBO Go, HBO Now and
the forthcoming HBO Max. "There is a shortage of these people."
Companies and recruiters say they are racing to find folks to
handle a range of tasks, including building apps, developing
back-end payment systems, analyzing user data, and writing
algorithms for personalized content recommendations.
Yet these firms are competing for workers during one of the
tightest labor markets in decades. The U.S. unemployment rate
dropped to 3.5% in September, the lowest level since December 1969,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment in
computer and mathematical occupations -- an indicator of
tech-sector employment -- reached a 20-year low in May at 1.3% and
was 2.4% in September.
Those figures underscore the challenges that employers face in
hiring, says Ryan Sutton, an executive at recruitment firm Robert
Half International Inc. "This is literally the peak of
competitiveness," he says.
Demand for movies and shows at any time online has prompted
companies to rethink how they bundle access to libraries of older
works in addition to new, original programming.
Apple TV+ and Disney+ are launching in November, while Peacock,
a streaming platform being developed by Comcast Corp.'s
NBCUniversal unit, HBO Max and Quibi are set to make their debuts
next year. They're competing against industry leaders Netflix and
Hulu, as well as YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc.'s Google,
Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video and others in seeking to stream
entertaining content without any hiccups and in ways that will keep
subscribers hooked.
Netflix's streaming technology, as well as heavy investments in
content, have helped the Los Gatos, Calif., company amass 158.3
million world-wide subscribers, more than double the amount it had
four years ago. Disney-controlled Hulu reported in May that it had
28 million subscribers, up from more than 25 million at the end of
2018 and roughly 17 million at the end of 2017.
To illustrate the complex nature of streaming video,
WarnerMedia's Mr. Legg points to an evening last May when roughly
4.6 million people simultaneously watched the finale of "Game of
Thrones" across more than 20 types of devices ranging from tablets
to big-screen TVs. He nervously watched, hoping that viewers didn't
experience glitches or other problems in the video stream.
"You can generate and build excitement around the programming,
but you have to have tech infrastructure to support a large number
of consumers, " he says. The competition for talent is so stiff,
Mr. Legg says, that WarnerMedia has recruited entire teams of data
scientists and people from outside of entertainment, such as the
airline industry.
Netflix is sometimes filling vacancies in just a matter of days
because so many job candidates have multiple offers in hand, says
Lauren Frank, who oversees tech-related recruiting for the company.
"We can pull out all the stops to move fast," she says. Netflix
currently is looking to fill about 200 tech positions, mostly in
California's Bay Area, she says.
On the hunt for workers, companies lean on employee referrals,
attend job fairs and scour websites like Microsoft Corp.'s LinkedIn
for prospects. Some also work with staffing firms.
Shaun Newsum sees the demand for tech gurus from both sides of
the fence. The 37-year-old software developer is technology chief
at Culture Genesis, a firm he co-founded last year that provides
live, interactive streaming services for media companies. So far he
has hired six people for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup by
tapping his personal network. At the same time, he says he has
fielded as many as two to three messages a week from recruiters
using Linke dIn to try to fill streaming positions.
"I've always got people reaching out," says Mr. Newsum, who cut
his teeth in streaming about a decade ago working for MLB Advanced
Media, Major League Baseball's technology arm and an early entrant
in video streaming. "But it's definitely increased a lot more now
that the streaming wars are heating up."
Los Angeles-based Quibi, a larger startup that is developing a
mobile video-streaming platform, has hired roughly 185 people in
the past year, mostly tech professionals, says Meg Whitman, who
leads the firm founded by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. Ms.
Whitman, who previously was CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
and eBay Inc., says Quibi has about 28 tech openings. Her pitch to
potential recruits: "We offer the chance to join a new company
investing in the future of mobile entertainment."
Hulu, founded in 2007, employs about 900 tech professionals and
has openings for 70 more, says Shannon Sullivan, a senior vice
president who oversees human resources at the Los Angeles-based
company. To appeal to candidates, Ms. Sullivan says Hulu offers
benefits such as help with student-loan debt, extensive parental
leave and child-care support. "Companies have to differentiate
themselves," she says.
Perks that other streaming services are dangling include options
to work remotely and invites to movie and television-show
premieres, executives and recruiters say.
At streaming companies, base salaries for senior tech jobs tend
to be 10% to 15% higher than they are for similar jobs in
industries such as banking and health care, according to David
Perry, an executive recruiter based in Ottawa. "If the service does
well, you can get a great bonus at the end of the year," he
says.
Ms. Needleman is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New
York. She can be reached at sarah.needleman@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 23, 2019 10:45 ET (14:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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