For most of the last decade, the Netflix vs Disney debate split along predictable lines. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) was the growth stock with the premium price tag, and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was the cheaper, steadier name you bought for the parks and the characters.
That split has mostly disappeared. Netflix now trades close to Disney on next year's earnings, and the two companies have started doing business together. So I set the stock charts aside and compared them as businesses. One number stood out more than any other, and it ended up deciding most of the matchup.
Below, I go through four rounds, make the strongest case I can for the side that lost, name the business I'd rather own for the next ten years, and spell out exactly what would change my mind.