I was there for the transition. IT wasn't all that much of a transition. Netflix was always a company that was digital and used data to make decisions. We just switch from delivering disks to bits and then had a whole lot more data to work with.
Apple would need a DNA change -- they treat their services as lead gen for hardware sales, as the article mentions.
There is no secret, other than they would need to treat their internet services as a first class citizen along with their hardware group, instead of as something to make their hardware worth more. But that would mean acknowledging that there are other hardware platforms out there.
One of the main reason Netflix is currently beating a lot of the other players is because they work on so many different kinds of hardware from many competing companies.
If Apple bought Netflix (as this article suggests), it would kill Netflix unless they let them keep making a 1st class Android app. And that is what Apple has to do if they want their internet services to be taken seriously -- they have to start acting like Apple hardware isn't the only hardware out there, and also that maybe people aren't only using Apple apps on their iPhones.