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Tag: Greg Peters

  • Get Your AI Off Our ‘Stranger Things’ & ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ Netflix Tells ByteDance In Latest Hollywood Cease & Desist Letter

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    Netflix “will not stand by and watch ByteDance treat our valued IP as free, public domain clip art,” the streamer told the TikTok owner tonight. In a short and stern cease and desist letter over Seedance 2.0, Netflix want generated AI videos of Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters, Squid Game and Bridgerton shut down now.

    With their two-page correspondence and potential legal action to follow, Netflix have linked arms and attorney arsenals with Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount (their rivals to buy WBD), and the still Bob Iger-run Disney to stop the user created content that has been bastardizing their top shows, films and other moneymakers. While Amazon, Apple, Sony and Comcast-owned Universal have yet to join the party, it is clear now with the Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters-led Netflix in the C&D house, this is serious stuff.

    How serious?

    Well, Netflix litigation chief Mindy LeMoine isn’t making as personal as WBD’s Wayne M. Smith did earlier Tuesday with his predecessor and now ByteDance Global General Counsel John Rogovin. Then again, LeMoine does cut to the chase with very specific citations:

    “Current forensic evidence indicates that Seedance is being used to generate unauthorized derivative works including, but not limited to:

    ● Bridgerton: Unauthorized depictions of Season 4 content, specifically featuring characters in a masquerade ball setting. These outputs mirror specific, narratively important costumes like Sophie Baek’s “Lady in Silver” gown. ByteDance has even promoted this content using #Bridgerton tags via its own official social media channels, such as @BytePlusGlobal.

    ● Stranger Things: High-fidelity reboots of the series finale, which feature detailed reproductions of the iconic cast as well as the monsters from the series, including Demogorgons and the Mindflayer.

    ● Squid Game: Seedance has generated recreations of the “Red Light, Green Light” sets and the iconic Young-hee doll. These include unauthorized crossovers, such as inserting real-world figures like Elon Musk into the Squid Game environment.

    ● KPop Demon Hunters: Seedance has reproduced the specific visual style and character designs from our animated musical feature, including the lead character Rumi.”

    ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

    Netflix

    The C&D letter goes on to state: “Netflix has never authorized ByteDance to use our content to generate these images or videos. ByteDance’s activities are willful, and constitute direct and secondary copyright infringement. The use of copyrighted works to create a competing commercial product, especially one that regurgitates the original, is not protected by fair use.”

    Unlike Disney, Paramount and WBD, Netflix are in full FAFO-mode here and give the Chinese tech company three days to set things straight. This comes one day after ByteDance swore they are “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.” 

    Netflix isn’t buying it.

    “To avoid immediate litigation, Netflix demands that ByteDance:

    1. Cease Generative Output: Immediately implement technological guardrails to prevent Seedance from generating any content that resembles Netflix’s protected characters, titles, or settings.

    2. Remove Infringing Content: Remove all unlawfully obtained Netflix-owned content from training datasets, and also scrub all existing Seedance-generated videos featuring Netflix IP from all ByteDance-controlled platforms.

    3. Identify All Infringements: Provide an accounting of all instances where Seedance has generated content based on prompts related to Netflix’s IP.

    4. Revoke Third-Party Access: Revoke access for any commercial partners or API users currently utilizing Seedance to generate unauthorized Netflix derivative works.”

    So, as Netflix awaits ByteDance’s response later this week, will it be Amazon, Apple, Sony or Universal sending the next letter? Stay tuned.

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    Dominic Patten

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  • Greg & Ted’s Excellent WBD Adventure With Studio Lot Tour, David Zaslav As Their Guide; Check Out The Photos

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    Wasting no time checking out their potential new home away from home, Netflix‘s bosses Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos made a most awesome visit to the Warner Bros Discovery studio lot today with David Zaslav as tour guide.

    In a series of photos released late Wednesday by WBD, the Netflix co-CEOs practically announced “we are Greg and Ted and we are your future,” to paraphrase that killer quip from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. If not going full on Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter from the 1989 metalhead comedy, Sarandos and Peters did look a lot like guys about to get the keys to their new digs.

    Getting some very touristy shots in with Zas in front of the WB water tower, between the sound stages and chatting with the troops, the near matching white kicks wearing executives’ appearance in Burbank had all the hallmarks of a big staged F.U. to WBD bid rivals David Ellison and Paramount.

    Coming on the very day that the WBD board unsurprisingly rejected Paramount’s $108 billion hostile takeover bid for the the whole company to stick with Netflix’s December 4 sealed $83 billion offer for the studios and streaming assets, the afternoon visit and the images were a flex meant to be felt all the way down at Par’s Melrose lot.

    Neither WBD nor Netflix had a comment about the Hump Day get together. However, the images did come with a caption of “today, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav welcomed Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters to the historic Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank to meet with leaders across the company.”

    In point of fact, Sarandos and Peters met around 400 members of WBD’s leadership (some of whom are going to be very very very well compensated if the deal between the iconic studio and the streamer goes through) in the lot’s Ross Theate. Hosted and, to some degree, MC’d by Zas, the co-CEO asked and took questions from the crowd. In the conversation, Sarandos and Peters offered assurances that they were interested in growing the business and had no interested in shuttering theatrical release — which WB has scheduled out until 2029 right now.

    Really though it was a lot of optics for a corporate buddy movie that just over two months ago, Peters openly scoffed at and almost everyone in town thought was a de facto done deal for David Ellison and his second richest man on the planet and Donald Trump whisperer Larry Ellison.

    Look at the smiles on their faces, look at the hope in their eyes …it’s just looking all wine, blue blazers and roses.

    Of course, even with the WBD board’s latest no thanks to Paramount and recommendations to shareholders to say the same, David Ellison still wants his second studio. No matter that Zas and gang have thrown serious shade on the Ellisons’ backstop promises and money on the table, everyone expects David and his father are going throw more money at WBD to get it before the January 8, 2026 deadline they set.

    While all that plays out, can we get some consensus here on if Greg Peters’ really is the Bill to Sarandos’ Ted? Asking for a friend…

    (L-R) Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter at 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey Hollywood Premiere (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

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    Dominic Patten

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  • Netflix Shifts Focus From Subscribers to Ads, A.I. and Real-World Ventures

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    Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says Netflix now reaches nearly a billion viewers. Dia Dipasupil/WireImage

    Since Netflix stopped disclosing subscriber numbers in its earnings reports earlier this year, the company’s executives have shifted their focus to discussing innovation in advertising, A.I., and real-world ventures on earnings calls. The pivot signals Netflix’s gradual evolution from a pure streaming platform into a broader tech and entertainment powerhouse. On the scale of a crawl-walk-run spectrum, Netflix is “now squarely in the ‘walk’ phase,” co-CEO Greg Peters told analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings call yesterday (Oct. 21). “We feel like we’ve established the fundamentals of the business now. Advertisers are excited about our growing scale,” he said. 

    Netflix’s advertising business, once considered a side experiment, saw its best quarter in the July-September period, proving it is now a reliable revenue stream in addition to subscription. Netflix said it doubled its U.S. upfront commitments, or pre-sold ad inventory for the coming year, during the quarter. Peters said Netflix’s in-house tech will soon support interactive ads that let viewers engage directly with campaigns.

    Netflix is testing similar interactivity in live programming. Peters said the company is exploring real-time voting features for its expanding slate of live shows and events. This capability could debut in Star Search, the classic talent competition Netflix plans to revive in 2026.

    For the July-September quarter, total revenue rose 17 percent year-over-year to $11.5 billion, while profit climbed 8 percent to $2.5 billion. Both figures came in below Wall Street expectations, primarily due to a one-time $619 million tax expense in Brazil, sending the company’s share price to fall 10 percent today. Without disclosing the exact subscriber number, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company now serves nearly a billion viewers globally. 

    Netflix is also delving deeper into generative A.I. to boost efficiency and creativity across its operations, from content localization and dubbing to personalized viewing recommendations. Recent examples include the use of A.I. in Happy Gilmore 2 to de-age characters in an opening flashback scene, and in Billionaires’ Bunker, a Spanish-language original created by the Money Heist team, where A.I. tools helped design sets and wardrobes.

    In response to an analyst question about A.I. and tools like OpenAI’s video-creation platform Sora, Sarandos emphasized that Netflix isn’t concerned about A.I. replacing human creativity. “For what we do, it takes a great artist to make something great. A.I. doesn’t automatically make you a great storyteller if you’re not [one],” he said.

    Beyond its advances in ad tech and A.I. applications, Netflix continues expanding its brand beyond the screen. The company is building a real-world ecosystem that spans merchandising, gaming, live events and new consumer experiences. Initiatives include a recent Spotify podcast partnership, a “Netflix House” entertainment center rollout, a Netflix-branded restaurant in Las Vegas, and new toy and collectibles collaborations with Mattel and Hasbro tied to KPop Demon Hunters.

    Netflix Shifts Focus From Subscribers to Ads, A.I. and Real-World Ventures

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    Andy Meek

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