For anyone who has been following the soap opera unfolding between Netflix and Paramount Skydance over the past few months in their financial brinksmanship to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the saga may be nearing its end. Today, WBD said its board of directors have determined that the latest offer from Paramount Skydance amounted to the better proposal. The media outfit gave Netflix four business days to match Paramount’s terms, but the streamer didn’t waste any time in declining to raise its own bid.
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the US,” the statement from Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
In addition to the purchase price of $31 per WBD share, Paramount’s latest offer also included a provision that it would cover the $2.8 billion termination fee that WBD would owe to Netflix for dissolving the existing merger agreement between the businesses. So rather than paying $82.7 billion to acquire the Warner Bros. part of the operation, it appears Netflix may walk away with no new content but padding its coffers with an extra nearly $3 billion.
After Netflix’s initial offer, Paramount Skydance swooped in with a hostile takeover attempt of the entire Warner Bros. Discovery business. WBD rejected it, Paramount tried again. Several additionalvolleys between the involved parties occurred over the past few weeks. While WBD has not yet formally accepted Paramount’s offer — which will be subject to long-winded regulatory approvals sure to spark more drama — it seems the dust will soon settle for this chapter.
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.”
“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.
Read on for the full list of DGA Awards 2026 winners below:
Theatrical Feature Film
WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners Guillermo Del Toro – Frankenstein Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Michael Apted First Time Directorial Feature
WINNER: Charlie Polinger – The Plague
Hasan Hadi – The President’s Cake Harry Lighton – Pillion Alex Russell – Lurker Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby
Documentary Film
WINNER: Mstyslav Chernov – 2000 Meters to Andriivka
Geeta Gandbhir – The Perfect Neighbor Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni – Cutting Through Rocks Elizabeth Lo – Mistress Dispeller Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus – Cover-Up
Dramatic Series
WINNER: Amanda Marsallis – The Pitt, “6:00 PM”
Liza Johnson – The Diplomat, “Amagansett” Janus Metz – Andor, “Who Are You?” Ben Stiller – Severance, “Cold Harbor” John Wells – The Pitt, “7:00 A.M.”
Comedy Series
WINNER: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – The Studio, “The Oner”
Lucia Aniello – Hacks, “A Slippery Slope” Janicza Bravo – The Bear, “Worms” Christopher Storer – The Bear, “Bears” Mike White – The White Lotus, “Denials”
Limited & Anthology Series
WINNER: Shannon Murphy- Dying for Sex, “It’s Not That Serious”
Jason Bateman – Black Rabbit, “The Black Rabbits” Antonio Campos – The Beast in Me, “Sick Puppy” Lesli Linka Glatter – Zero Day, “Episode 6” Ally Pankiw – Black Mirror, “Common People”
Movies for Television
WINNER: Stephen Chbosky – Nonnas
Jesse Armstrong – Mountainhead Scott Derrickson – The Gorge Michael Morris – Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Kyle Newacheck – Happy Gilmore 2
Variety
WINNER: Liz Patrick – SNL50: The Anniversary Special
Yvonne De Mare – The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Julia Roberts; Sam Smith” Andy Fisher – Jimmy Kimmel Live!, “Stephen Colbert; Kumail Nanjiani; Reneé Rapp” Beth McCarthy-Miller – SNL50: The Homecoming Concert Paul Pennolino- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “Public Media”
Sports
WINNER: Matthew Gangl – 2025 World Series – Game 7
Steve Milton – 2025 Masters Tournament Rich Russo – Super Bowl LIX
Reality/Quiz and Game
WINNER: Mike Sweeney – Conan O’Brien Must Go, “Austria”
Lucinda M. Margolis – Jeopardy!, “Ep. 9341” Adam Sandler – The Price is Right, “10,000th Episode”
Documentary Series/News
WINNER: Rebecca Miller – Mr. Scorsese, “All This Filming Isn’t Healthy”
Marshall Curry – SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, “Written By: A Week Inside the SNL Writers Room” Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin – Billy Joel: And So It Goes, “Part Two” Alexandra Stapleton – Sean Combs: The Reckoning, “Official Girl” Matt Wolf – Pee-Wee as Himself, “Part 1”
Netflix‘s plans for movies after its projected acquisition of Warner Bros. still remains up in the air, but a new report suggests that the streamer has plans for some very small theatrical windows.
What are Netflix’s reported plans for WB movies’ theatrical windows?
In a new report from Deadline on the theatrical return for the Stranger Things finale, it’s noted that those in Hollywood remain wary of Netflix’s plans for WB movies once they acquire the company. Deadline notes that, although Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said nothing will change, sources note that Netflix have been “proponents of a 17-day” theatrical window for films.
The move, should it come to fruition, is one that Deadline notes would “steamroll the theatrical business,” with the report mentioning that companies like AMC believe a 45-day window is a line that cannot be crossed. While no confirmation of any theatrical window exists, Deadline has reportedmultipletimes through December that Sarandos is a big fan of the 17-day window structure.
Although rumors suggest Netflix will be shrinking the theatrical windows for films if and when it acquires WB, Sarandos himself has said otherwise. Following backlash on the idea of a shorter window and concerns about Netflix’s proposed acquisition of WB, Sarandos has said that it’ll be business as usual when it comes to how WB works.
“There’s been a lot of talk about theatrical distribution, so we want to set the record straight: we are 100% committed to releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters with industry-standard windows,” said Sarandos when Netflix announced the acquisition.
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.
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)
Ted Sarandos made a surprise appearance at last night’s Canal+ content showcase. Having been showered with praise for the streamer’s impact in France, he shed more light on Netflix‘s plans for Warner Bros.’s theatrical releasing if that deal goes through.
Maxime Saada, Canal+ Chair and CEO, who has been a consistent supporter of Netflix’s management and strategy, said the streamer had been “very good” for his company. Netflix launched in France in September 14 to a hostile audience who culturally were more inclined to watch free-TV channels or go to the cinema.
“Before you showed up, we had approximately 30% of French people willing to pay [to watch] TV,” said Saada. “Netflix showed up in France with your proposition and user experience, and you convinced the French to pay, and now the penetration of paid television is 75%. You have basically doubled the market size in France, so thank you for that.”
Sarandos responded that Netflix knew it “had to make television worth paying for” and “good enough that consumers would be glad to pay for it.”
Theatrical commitment
Sarandos was asked about the rationale for buying Warner Bros. for $83B, and he chose to respond by outlining where Netflix lacked as an entertainment operation and once again confirming Netflix’s commitment to releasing studio movies in the cinema.
“It’s hard to imagine we’ve only been doing original programming for 12 years,” he said. “We’ve been moving very fast, building a library as fast as we can. We have made everything we have greenlit so it’s not a very deep development pool. Our library only extends back a decade whereas Warner Bros. stretches back a hundred years. They know a lot about things we haven’t ever done like theatrical distribution.
“Our intentions when we buy Warner Bros. will be to continue to release Warner Bros, studio movies in theaters with the traditional windows. Those movies will flow through the Canal+ output deal. We never got into it before because we never owned a theatrical distribution mechanism. We were monetizing movies through our own subscription because that’s how we were growing the business the fastest.”
In France, theatrical releasing rules are complex, with Netflix and Canal+ among those whio have sought to reduce long windows that hold theatrical movies back from TV screens. Currently, Netflix has to wait 15 months before it can stream films in the country.
Saada questioned whether Netflix would continue its relationship with Canal+ post the Warner deal, which he described as “80% partners and maybe 20% competitors” – particularly in terms of sports rights.
Sarandos responded that Netflix would only compete for “eventized” and “specialized” sports such as the upcoming Anthony Joshua vs Jake Paul boxing match or Christmas Day American football. “Our primary mission is film and television,” said Sarandos. “I don’t see us flipping from 80-20 to 20-80.”
Netflix is battling out to acquire Warner with Paramount also interested via a hostile takeover bid. The Financial Times reported this morning that Warner is set to rebuff Paramount’s offer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount on Monday launched a hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, initiating a potentially bruising battle with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio along with the power to reshape much of the nation’s entertainment landscape.
Emerging just days after top Warner managers agreed to Netflix’s $72 billion purchase, the Paramount bid seeks to go over the heads of those leaders by appealing directly to Warner shareholders with more money — $77.9 billion — and a plan to buy all of Warner’s business, including the cable business that Netflix does not want.
Paramount said its decision to go hostile came after it made several earlier offers that Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with following the company’s October announcement that it was open to selling itself.
In its appeal to shareholders, Paramount noted its offer also contains more cash than Netflix’s bid — $18 billion more — and argued that it’s more likely to pass scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration, a big concern given his habit of injecting himself in American business decisions.
AP AUDIO: Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros., challenging a $72 billion offer by Netflix
AP’s Lisa Dwyer reports on a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Over the weekend, Trump said the Netflix-Warner combo “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share and that he planned to review the deal personally.
For its part, Netflix says it is confident Warner will reject the Paramount bid and that regulators, and Trump, will back its deal, citing multiple conversations that co-CEO Ted Sarandos has had with him about the streaming company’s expansion and hiring.
“I think the president’s interest in this is the same as ours, which is to create and protect jobs,” Sarandos said Monday at an investor conference.
Battle draws political attention in Washington
The fight for Warner drew strong reaction in Washington, with politicians from both major parties weighing in on the likely impact on streaming prices, movie theater employment and the diversity of entertainment choices and political views.
Paramount, run by David Ellison, whose family is closely allied with Trump, said it had submitted six proposals to Warner over a 12-week period before the latest offer.
“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,” the Paramount CEO said in a statement. Ellison added that his deal would lead to more competition in the industry, not less, and more movies in theaters.
A regulatory document released Monday suggested another possible Paramount advantage to win over Trump: An investment firm run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would be investing in the deal, too.
Also participating would be funds controlled by the governments of three unnamed Persian Gulf countries, widely reported as Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Trump’s family company has struck deals this year for buildings and resorts that bear his name in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, partnering in the former with a company closely tied to the government and in the latter with the government fund itself.
Also possibly in Paramount’s favor are recent changes at CBS News since its October purchase of the news and commentary website The Free Press. The site’s founder, Bari Weiss, who has a reputation for fighting “woke” culture, was then installed as editor-in-chief in a signal Ellison intended to shake up the storied network of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and “60 Minutes,” long viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment.
Trump is a wild card
Still, Trump is a wild card given his tendency to make decisions based on gut and his personal mood.
On Monday, he lashed out at Paramount for allowing “60 Minutes” to interview his ally-turned-enemy Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, writing on social media that “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.”
The drama surrounding control of Warner began Friday when Netflix made the surprise announcement that it had struck a deal with its management to buy the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter,” HBO Max and DC Studios.
The cash and stock proposal was valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt that will be assumed in the deal. By contrast, the Paramount offer is for $30 per Warner share, and worth $108 billion, included assumed debt. Paramount’s offer is set to expire on Jan. 8 unless it’s extended.
But comparing the two deals is complicated because they are not buying the same thing. The Netflix offer, if it goes through, will only close after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal, which is unlikely to close for at least a year, are networks such as CNN and Discovery.
The federal government has the authority to kill any big media deals if it has antitrust concerns, but such matters are usually left to experts at the Department of Justice. In his decision to get involved personally, Trump has decided, as he has with other government norms, to make a sharp break with precedent.
That worries Usha Haley, a Wichita State University specialist in international business strategy, who noted that Ellison is the son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person.
“He said he’s going to be involved in the decision. We should take him at face value,” Haley said of Trump. “For him, it’s just greater control over the media.”
But others are uncertain how big a role Trump will play.
John Mayo, an antitrust expert at Georgetown University, said the scrutiny will be serious whichever offer is approved by shareholders and goes before the DOJ, and that he thinks experts there will keep partisanship out of their decisions despite the politically charged atmosphere.
“That may affect at least the rhetoric that occurs in the press,” he said, “though I doubt it will affect the analysis that occurs at the Department of Justice.”
Shares of Paramount surged 9% on Monday while Netflix fell 3.4%, and Warner Bros. closed up 4.4%.
___
Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky, David Bauder and Charles Sheehan in New York and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.
HBO delivers the legitimacy and value no rival can replicate. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery
There’s a particularly trenchant quote from HBO’s House of the Dragon that keeps popping into my head as major media companies jockey for position in pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery: “Aegon Targaryen sits the Iron Throne. He wears the Conqueror’s crown, wields the Conqueror’s sword, has the Conqueror’s name. He was anointed by a septon of the Faith before the eyes of thousands. Every symbol of legitimacy belongs to him.”
Symbols are assets that can be leveraged for value in different ways. Zooming out to House of the Dragon’s home network, HBO finds itself in a position to be an integral symbol of legitimacy and value in the WBD sweepstakes. As all publicly circle the wagons, it’s time to explore the premium cable network’s merits and which company would benefit most from its addition.
This article contains a plethora of data points that highlight whitespace opportunities and strategic value in the market. But it’s not always the quantifiable elements that yield the greatest benefits. HBO’s multi-decade track record as a culture-shaping authority cannot be summed up in an Excel sheet.
“It is not merely a content library; rather, it is a brand that stands for prestige and audience trust, meaning an acquirer instantly uplevels its brand value with the acquisition, as well as attracts unrivaled talent,” Andrew Cussens, CEO of content studio Film Folk, told Observer.
This very notion was recently demonstrated when WBD re-rebranded its streaming service to HBO Max. The name carries weight throughout the industry while certain rival brands still search for a defined identity that elicits strong audience associations. The data backs up its position as a go-to destination and an illuminating opportunity.
HBO and HBO Max by the numbers
WBD’s streaming platforms had 128 million subscribers at the end of September, with the vast majority belonging to HBO Max. (Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers.) It’s a hits-driven platform that values prestige quality over quantity. That’s incredibly valuable, but it can run counter to mass market ambitions.
For example, The Last of Us Season 2 and The White Lotus Season 3 rank among the most-watched U.S. streaming series of 2025, according to Samba TV’s State of Streaming report. Yet, HBO Max only accounts for 7 percent of the Top 100 most-streamed series overall, per Samba, while WBD’s share of U.S. streaming sits at just 1.3 percent, per Nielsen, respectively. Even as the majority of viewing for HBO series occurs on streaming vs linear, HBO Max remains a top-heavy platform that accounts for a surprisingly small slice of the U.S. TV pie despite its namesake brand’s prestige.
From Watchmen and Penguin to House of the Dragon and It: Welcome to Derry, HBO has worked wonders in elevating brand-name intellectual property and franchise fare in pursuit of greater viewership (while still succeeding with more standard “prestige” fare like The White Lotus and Task). This raises the question: has it reached its scalable ceiling?
“There is definite upside in the number of subscribers and revenue-per-viewer, and HBO Max hasn’t saturated either,” Samba TV CEO and co-founder Ashwin Navin told Observer. “By adding new tier-one shows and tentpoles, they can continue to broaden their audience base. With more subscribers on the ad-tier, combined with more precision targeting and data, there’s definitely room to grow monetization. The ceiling is much higher with the right investment and growth strategy.”
HBO is already doing most of the heavy lifting for HBO Max, especially when compared to its high-minded cable counterparts. HBO titles account for 14 percent of the streamer’s library, but more than 18 percent of its audience demand, according to Parrot Analytics. That tops Showtime on Paramount+ (7.2 percent supply vs. 7.3 percent demand) and FX on Hulu (3.6 percent vs. 4.6 percent).
Who stands to gain the most if WBD is sold?
For better and for worse (mostly the latter), Hollywood is chasing scale to compete. Yet, no one is talking about the potential overlap when it comes to possible streaming combos. Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix could all stand to gain from HBO’s prestige pricing power, but face challenges to continue scaling without sacrificing quality.
Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults who subscribe to HBO Max also subscribe to Netflix, according to Greenlight Analytics, where I work as Director of Insights & Content Strategy. About 40 percent of HBO Max subscribers also use Paramount+, while only 20 percent overlap with Peacock.
“Either Paramount or Comcast would benefit the most,” Hernan Lopez, founder and CEO of media/tech management consulting firm Owl & Co., told Observer. “They would immediately more than double their global revenue and profits from streaming, and the size of the library — both for their own streaming services as well as strategic leverage for negotiation with Netflix.”
The end result for each suitor would be different. Generally speaking, we’re talking about more subscribers, greater pricing power, higher combined lifetime value per customer, higher engagement, lower churn and so on. On paper, that’s awfully tantalizing, though not without its obstacles.
“Netflix would only fully realize the value of buying WB streaming and studios if it keeps the TV and theatrical studios open, which would mean being willing to make and sell shows to third parties and distribute in theaters—things they haven’t done so far,” Lopez noted. Despite nudges in the theatrical direction, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandossaid as recently as April that movie theaters are an “outmoded idea.” Oof.
Interestingly, 78 percent of 2025 HBO Max engagement was directed at titles released before 2025, the second-highest rate among the premium streamers, per Samba. That speaks to the enduring power of HBO’s treasured library and the appointment-viewing gaps between high-profile HBO releases. On the flip side, Peacock (64%) boasts the largest share of engagement dedicated to programming that debuted in 2025. Meanwhile, Paramount+’s male-skewing originals fit well with HBO Max’s female-leaning audience. To Lopez’s points, one can see the non-Netflix fits.
It would be media malpractice to see HBO reduced to a mere tile in another company’s crowded streaming ecosystem. The small screen’s crown jewel deserves better than that, not only for its reputational value but for the tangible results it yields. Yes, time spent has become the all-powerful quarry of every streaming platform. No, HBO is not a content firehose designed to constantly scratch that itch. But much like the throne, crown and sword, the validation it offers is the first step in empowering whomever its parent company may be to rule the realm.
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-CEOGreg 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.
As the entertainment industry reckons with when and how to use generative AI in filmmaking, Netflix is leaning in. In its quarterly earnings report released on Tuesday afternoon, Netflix wrote in its letter to investors that it is “very well positioned to effectively leverage ongoing advances in AI.”
Netflix isn’t planning to use generative AI as the backbone of its content but believes the technology has potential as a tool to make creatives more efficient.
“It takes a great artist to make something great,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said on Tuesday’s earnings call. “AI can give creatives better tools to enhance their overall TV/movie experience for our members, but it doesn’t automatically make you a great storyteller if you’re not.”
Earlier this year, Netflix said it used generative AI in final footage for the first time in the Argentine show “The Eternaut” to create a scene of a building collapsing. Since then, the filmmakers behind “Happy Gilmore 2” used generative AI to make characters look younger in the film’s opening scene, while the producers of “Billionaires’ Bunker” used the technology as a pre-production tool to envision wardrobe and set design.
“We’re confident that AI is going to help us and help our creative partners tell stories better, faster, and in new ways,” Sarandos said. “We’re all in on that, but we’re not chasing novelty for novelty’s sake here.”
AI has been a contentious topic in the entertainment industry, as artists worry that LLM-powered tools that non-consensually used their work as training data have the potential to negatively impact their jobs.
With Netflix as a bellwether, it seems that studios are more likely to use generative AI for special effects rather than to replace the role of actors — even if an AI actor recently caused an uproar among Hollywood actors, despite not yet booking any gigs (that we know of). These behind-the-scenes AI uses still have the potential to impact visual effects jobs, however.
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These debates recently escalated when ChatGPT-maker OpenAI unveiled its Sora 2 audio and video generation model, which was released without guardrails that prevent users from generating videos of some actors and historical figures. Just this week, the Hollywood trade organization SAG-AFTRA and actor Bryan Cranston urged OpenAI to institute stronger guardrails against deepfaking actors like Cranston himself.
When an investor asked Sarandos about the impact of Sora on Netflix, he said that it “starts to make sense” that content creators could be impacted, but he’s less worried about the movie and TV business — or so he tells investors.
“We’re not worried about AI replacing creativity,” he said.
Netflix’s quarterly revenue grew 17% year-over-year to $11.5 billion, though this fell below the company’s forecast.
She’s gonna do it. (Make Barry Keoghan Mr. Tumnus.) Photo: James Devaney/GC Images
Greta Gerwig has already made Barbieland, historical Massachusetts, and 2001 Sacramento feel real. All that’s left is Narnia. Gerwig is current filming her adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, which she had already started writing a draft of before even beginning filming Barbie. The project was first revealed in July 2023, confirming Gerwig would make at least two movies in the series. Slowly but surely, details about the new franchise are hitting the page, including the extremely famous actors being cast. Plus, Gerwig has convinced Netflix to show the film on Imax screens. It’s always good to have a resurrected lion Jesus — especially one played by Meryl Streep — on your side. Below, the latest cast and production updates.
Mark Ronson, the Barbie soundtrackringleader, will score the upcoming Narnia film, Variety confirmed on September 23. Notably, the film stars his fellow former Gerwigcollaborator and mother-in-law, Meryl Streep. We knew it meant something when they presented together at the Grammys. Ronson’s involvement, as he’s a pop-music producer used to working with stars like Bruno Mars, Amy Winehouse, and Miley Cyrus, implies that the film might be a little less stately than previous Narnia adaptations. Does this mean we get to hear some pop stars on this soundtrack like we did for Barbie? Charli XCX might not have ended up in the role of the White Witch, despite initial rumors, but that doesn’t mean she can’t drop a banger about snow. In our wildest dreams, the whole score is a collaboration between Ronson and his “True Blue” collaborator Angel Olsen. Burn your Turkish delight for no witness.
Gerwig may be chronicling Narnia, but there’s a lot of lore in that world, and two movies wouldn’t come close to covering the whole series. Gerwig is tackling The Magician’s Nephew, the sixth book to be released in the series. That book covers the origins of the iconic White Witch and Aslan’s battle that rages on in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, focusing on two young children, Digory and Polly, who are sent to Narnia by their uncle Andrew. There is much debate in the Narnia community about what book to read first, between The Magician’s Nephew and TLTWTW, because the original series’ release pattern eschewed chronological order. Lewis first put out TLTWTW in 1950, continued the series for three chronological installments in 1951 to 1953, put out two separate prequels, The Horse and His Boy (1954) and The Magician’s Nephew (1955), and then ended the series with The Last Battle in 1956. It looks like Gerwig has chosen a side.
The Disney- and Fox-released film series in the 2000s only made three movies, never getting to the planned adaptation of the fourth-released book, The Silver Chair, despite a 2014 fan contest to name the film’s antagonist. Those films avoided the prequels altogether, as did the 1988–90 BBC series. In November 2023, Scott Stuber, the then–film chief of Netflix, told Variety that, while The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the “preeminent” book, Gerwig was working on how to “break the whole arc of all of [the series].”
Gerwig told Time that she was drawn to the “paradox of the worlds that Lewis created,” through the combination of mythologies like Greek fauns, Father Christmas, and the British Empire. Ted Sarandos, meanwhile, told the magazine that Gerwig’s version of the story will be “bigger and bolder” than what audiences imagine. Lewis’s version of the story is deeply associated with Christianity to the point where “Talking Narnia to Your Neighbors” is a real 2005 headline from the Evangelizing website Today’s Christian Woman. In terms of adaptation, Stuber confirmed to Variety in his November interview that Gerwig’s version is “rooted in faith.” Previous examples of Gerwig’s work being informed by Christianity include Lady Bird eating non-blessed communion wafers, Lady Bird getting suspended for sassing a pro-life activist, and Barbie killing God.
Daniel Craig will be playing Andrew, that dastardly fellow. He’ll be joined by Carrie Mulligan as Digory’s sick mother. At least one Barbie is joining the cast, because the White Witch will be played by Barbie and Sex Education star Emma Mackey. According to the The Hollywood Reporter, she beat out Margaret Qualley and multiple other actresses who were interested in the role (Deadline previously reported that Charli XCX could potentially trade her brat green to play the White Witch.) Meanwhile, Meryl Streep will be playing Aslan. Yes, the lion. Notably, there is no official casting for the purported leads of the film, Digory and Polly.
Principal photography began on the film on August 11, per Far Out. Early videos coming out from set look like they are set in the mid-1950s, rather than the original Victorian era.
Gerwig’s first movie is set to hit Imax screens on Thanksgiving 2026 after a big win in negotiations with Netflix. That means it won’t be available on streaming until Christmas, but some things just feel right.
Amid a sea of A-listers at this year’s Venice Film Festival — the 82nd edition is shaping up to be the starriest parade of talent on the Lido in recent memory — Netflix will be on the scene in a major way as the streamer’s top executives will be rubbing elbows at the festival’s most anticipated premieres.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that co-CEO Ted Sarandos, chief content officer Bela Bajaria, chairman of film Dan Lin and awards guru Lisa Taback and members of her team will be in attendance this week as Netflix presents its most robust Venice slate ever.
With three (highly anticipated) competition selections, Netflix is responsible for infusing a healthy dose of those aforementioned movie stars to the festival courtesy of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly with George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Emily Mortimer, and Kathryn Bigelow‘s A House of Dynamite with Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Anthony Ramos and Jared Harris.
Netflix’s Venice debuts also signal the streamer’s confidence in the films at an important moment in the awards season race as the festival has long been a favored launching pad for titles that tend to do well in the months leading up to the Academy Awards. The showing also comes a year after the streamer snagged the most Oscar nominations for any film in the race last year as Emilia Pérez picked up 13, a record for non-English language movies. To celebrate, the Jay Kelly team huddled for a private dinner on Wednesday, while del Toro and his Frankenstein stars are expected at a Saturday cocktail event. (Clooney, however, had to miss the dinner and cut short his press junket schedule as he fell ill on Wednesday.)
Sarandos and Bajaria.
Courtesy of Chyna Photography
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera even praised the quality of Netflix’s offerings this year. “They couldn’t come last year because they didn’t have any films to offer, but they have three very strong films this year, from Kathryn Bigelow, from Noah Baumbach and from Guillermo de Toro,” Barbera explained. “We worried if it was a good idea to have three films from Netflix in the main competition, but they are all so good, they all deserve to be in there.”
Baumbach’s Jay Kelly will be the first out of the gate with a world premiere scheduled for Thursday evening. Clooney (with wife Amal), Sandler and Dern have all been spotted on the Lido already ahead of the big night. Baumbach is here, too, along with his agent, UTA partner Jeremy Barber, who also represents Baumbach’s filmmaker partner and frequent collaborator Greta Gerwig. She has a role in Jay Kelly and could attend. Coincidentally, Gerwig is currently at work on The Chronicles of Narnia adaptation, also for Netflix, so it’s all in the family.
Clooney as the title star in Jay Kelly.
Peter Mountain/Netflix
Jay Kelly casts Clooney as a famous movie actor who is on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe with his devoted manager, Ron, played by Sandler. Here’s how Baumbach describes the film in his official director’s statement: “Jay Kelly is about a man looking back at his life and reflecting on the choices, the sacrifices, the successes, the mistakes he’s made. When is it too late to change the course of our lives? Jay Kelly is an actor, and as such, the movie is about identity. How do we perform ourselves? Who are we as parents, children, friends, professionals? Are we good? Are we bad? What is the gap between who we’ve decided we are and who we might actually be? What makes a life? Jay Kelly is about what it means to be yourself.”
Saturday brings the world premiere of Frankenstein, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in an experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation. “This film concludes a quest that started at age 7, when I saw James Whale’s Frankenstein films for the first time. I felt the jolt of recognition in that seminal moment: Gothic horror became my church, and Boris Karloff my Messiah,” del Toro explained in his director’s statement.
Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein.
Ken Woroner/Netflix
Bigelow and her House of Dynamite crew won’t be arriving until next week, ahead of the film’s world premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Her film tells the story of what happens when a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, forcing a race to determine who is responsible and how to respond. “Multiple nations possess enough nuclear weapons to end civilisation within minutes. And yet, there’s a kind of collective numbness — a quiet normalisation of the unthinkable. How can we call this ‘defense’ when the inevitable outcome is total destruction?” Bigelow asks in her festival statement. “I wanted to make a film that confronts this paradox — to explore the madness of a world that lives under the constant shadow of annihilation, yet rarely speaks of it.”
NEW YORK (AP) — The typical compensation package for chief executives who run companies in the S&P 500 jumped nearly 10% in 2024 as the stock market enjoyed another banner year and corporate profits rose sharply.
Many companies have heeded calls from shareholders to tie CEO compensation more closely to performance. As a result, a large proportion of pay packages consist of stock awards, which the CEO often can’t cash in for years, if at all, unless the company meets certain targets, typically a higher stock price or market value or improved operating profits.
The Associated Press’ CEO compensation survey, which uses data analyzed for The AP by Equilar, included pay data for 344 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30.
Here are the key takeaways from the survey:
A good year at the top
The median pay package for CEOs rose to $17.1 million, up 9.7%. Meanwhile, the median employee at companies in the survey earned $85,419, reflecting a 1.7% increase year over year.
CEOs had to navigate sticky inflation and relatively high interest rates last year, as well as declining consumer confidence. But the economy also provided some tail winds: Consumers kept spending despite their misgivings about the economy; inflation did subside somewhat; the Fed lowered interest rates; and the job market stayed strong.
The stock market’s main benchmark, the S&P 500, rose more than 23% last year. Profits for companies in the index rose more than 9%.
“2024 was expected to be a strong year, so the (nearly) 10% increases are commensurate with the timing of the pay decisions,” said Dan Laddin, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners.
Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, said there have been some recent “long-overdue” increases in worker pay, especially for those at the bottom of the wage scale. But she said too many workers in the world’s richest countries still struggle to pay their bills.
The top earners
Rick Smith, the founder and CEO of Axon Enterprises, topped the survey with a pay package valued at $164.5 million. Axon, which makes Taser stun guns and body cameras, saw revenue grow more than 30% for three straight years and posted record annual net income of $377 million in 2024. Axon’s shares more than doubled last year after rising more than 50% in 2023.
General Electric Co. CEO Lawrence Culp Jr. signs a $52 billion deal by Emirates to purchase Boeing aircraft with GE engines, at the Dubai Air Show, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
General Electric Co. CEO Lawrence Culp Jr. signs a $52 billion deal by Emirates to purchase Boeing aircraft with GE engines, at the Dubai Air Show, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
Almost all of Smith’s pay package consists of stock awards, which he can only receive if the company meets targets tied to its stock price and operations for the period from 2024 to 2030. Companies are required to assign a value to the stock awards when they are granted.
Other top earners in the survey include Lawrence Culp, CEO of what is now GE Aerospace ($87.4 million), Tim Cook at Apple ($74.6 million), David Gitlin at Carrier Global ($65.6 million) and Ted Sarandos at Netflix ($61.9 million). The bulk of those pay packages consisted of stock or options awards.
The median stock award rose almost 15% last year compared to a 4% increase in base salaries, according to Equilar.
Tim Cook attends the WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Tim Cook attends the WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
“For CEOs, target long-term incentives consistently increase more each year than salaries or bonuses,” said Melissa Burek, also a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners. “Given the significant role that long-term incentives play in executive pay, this trend makes sense.”
Jackie Cook at Morningstar Sustainalytics said the benefit of tying CEO pay to performance is “that share-based pay appears to provide a clear market signal that most shareholders care about.” But she notes that the greater use of share-based pay has led to a “phenomenal rise” in CEO compensation “tracking recent years’ market performance,” which has “widened the pay gap within workplaces.”
Some well-known billionaire CEOs are low in the AP survey. Warren Buffett’s compensation was valued at $405,000, about five times what a worker at Berkshire Hathaway makes. According to Tesla’s proxy, Elon Musk received no compensation for 2024, but in 2018 he was awarded a multiyear package that has been valued at $56 billion and is the subject of a court battle.
Other notable CEOs didn’t meet the criteria for inclusion the survey. Starbucks’ Brian Niccol received a pay package valued at $95.8 million, but he only took over as CEO on Sept. 9. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang saw his compensation grow to $49.9 million, but the company filed its proxy after April 30.
The pay gap
At half the companies in AP’s annual pay survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale 192 years to make what the CEO did in one. Companies have been required to disclose this so-called pay ratio since 2018.
The pay ratio tends to be highest at companies in industries where wages are typically low. For instance, at cruise line company Carnival Corp., its CEO earned nearly 1,300 times the median pay of $16,900 for its workers. McDonald’s CEO makes about 1,000 times what a worker making the company’s median pay does. Both companies have operations that span numerous countries.
Overall, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers in the U.S. rose 3.6% through 2024, according to the Labor Department. The average worker in the U.S. makes $65,460 a year. That figure rises to $92,000 when benefits such as health care and other insurance are included.
“With CEO pay continuing to climb, we still have an enormous problem with excessive pay gaps,” Anderson said. “These huge disparities are not only unfair to lower-level workers who are making significant contributions to company value – they also undercut enterprise effectiveness by lowering employee morale and boosting turnover rates.”
Some gains for female CEOs
This photo provided by Otis Elevator Co. shows CEO Judy Marks. (via AP)
This photo provided by Otis Elevator Co. shows CEO Judy Marks. (via AP)
For the 27 women who made the AP survey — the highest number dating back to 2014 — median pay rose 10.7% to $20 million. That compares to a 9.7% increase to $16.8 million for their male counterparts.
The highest earner among female CEOs was Judith Marks of Otis Worldwide, with a pay package valued at $42.1 million. The company, known for its elevators and escalators, has had operating profit above $2 billion for four straight years. About $35 million of Marks’ compensations was in the form of stock awards.
Other top earners among female CEOs were Jane Fraser of Citigroup ($31.1 million), Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices ($31 million), Mary Barra at General Motors ($29.5 million) and Laura Alber at Williams-Sonoma ($27.7 million).
FILEw – Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing to examine Wall Street firms on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILEw – Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing to examine Wall Street firms on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, arrives for a dinner at the Elysee Palace, during an event on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, arrives for a dinner at the Elysee Palace, during an event on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
Christy Glass, a professor of sociology at Utah State University who studies equity, inclusion and leadership, said while there may be a few more women on the top paid CEO list, overall equity trends are stagnating, particularly as companies cut back on DEI programs.
“There are maybe a couple more names on the list, but we’re really not moving the needle significantly,” she said.
FILE- Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors, talks to David Rubenstein during an interview hosted by the Economic Club of Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
FILE- Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors, talks to David Rubenstein during an interview hosted by the Economic Club of Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
Prioritizing security
Equilar found that a larger number of companies are offering security perquisites as part of executive compensation packages, possibly in reaction to the December shooting of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.
Equilar said an analysis of 208 companies in the S&P 500 that filed proxy statements by April 2 showed that the median spending on security rose to $94,276 last year from $69,180 in 2023.
Among the companies that increased their security perks were Centene, which provides health care services to Medicare and Medicaid, and the chipmaker Intel.
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Reporters Matt Ott and Chris Rugaber in Washington contributed.
Ted Sarandos, the Netflix co-CEO, denies claims that AI threatens Hollywood’s creative jobs.
In a new interview, Sarandos dismissed fears that AI would eliminate jobs and noted that technological advancements enhance some creative work.
“I have more faith in humans than that. I really do. I don’t believe that an A.I. program is going to write a better screenplay than a great writer, or is going to replace a great performance, or that we won’t be able to tell the difference,” he told TheNew York Times. “A.I. is not going to take your job. The person who uses A.I. well might take your job.”
Sarandos noted that “A.I. is a natural kind of advancement of things that are happening in the creative space today, anyway.”
“Volume stages did not displace on-location shooting. Writers, directors, editors will use A.I. as a tool to do their jobs better and to do things more efficiently and more effectively,” he continued. “And in the best case, to put things onscreen that would be impossible to do.”
The Netflix executive used animation as an example, going from hand-drawn animation to computer-generated animation, saying that more people are employed in animation now.
“Remember how everybody fought home video? For several decades, the studios wouldn’t license movies to television,” he added. “So every advancement in technology in entertainment has been fought and then ultimately has turned out to grow the business. I don’t know that this would be any different.”
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a recent New York Times interview that the 2023 blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” would’ve “enjoyed just as big an audience” on the streamer as they did in theaters.
While discussing what type of content isn’t right for Netflix, Sarandos said, “I don’t think that there’s a clean answer because the best version of something may work really well for Netflix but just hasn’t worked to date. There’s some obvious ones, like we don’t do breaking news and that kind of thing, because I think there’s a lot of other outlets for it. People aren’t looking to us for that.”
The NYT reporter then pointed out the theatrical releases of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” which both had impressive box office runs and spawned the cultural phenomenon “Barbenheimer.” (Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” earned $1.44 billion worldwide, while Universal’s “Oppenheimer” grossed $951 million.)
“Are there things that just don’t feel like they’re in your wheelhouse right now?” the reporter asked.
“Both of those movies would be great for Netflix,” Sarandos said of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” “They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix.”
He continued, “And so I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain kinds of movies do or don’t work. There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor. He is 28 years old, and he watched ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on his phone.”
In January of this year, Sarandos said Netflix does not plan to change its “strategy or the mix [of licensed and original films]” after Scott Stuber’s exit as film chairman. According to the co-CEO, Netflix’s original movies “are attracting some of the biggest audiences in the world.”
“It’s always going to be that kind of blend of, first window, second window and deep catalog,” Sarandos added. “We think that formula works best to entertain the world.”
No, you’re not the only person spending too much time on Netflix. The average Netflix user spent 16 days streaming content from January to June this year, according to new data released by the streaming service.
After two years of consumers and the press relying on Netflix’s Top 10 lists and Nielsen data to determine Netflix’s most watched content, the company just opened the floodgates to a wealth of information that will give more insight into how viewers use the streaming service. On Tuesday, it dropped a dataset of 18,000 shows and movies (which make up 99% of its catalog), listing how many hours of viewership they each amassed in the first six months of 2023. And it plans to continue releasing this information every six months.
Ginny & Georgia was one of the top performing series during the January to June period, with nearly 1 billion hours watched, the equivalent of 110,410 years. Other top performers were The Night Agent and Suits, with a respective 93,000 and 68,000 years-worth of hours viewed.
“This is the actual data we use to run the business,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a press briefing on Tuesday. Altogether, Netflix’s 238.4 million subscribers (as of June 30) spent nearly 100 billion hours watching Netflix over the six-month period.
Throughout Netflix’s existence, “The one constant is that people are asking for more viewing information,” Sarandos said. By not providing it, the company took pressure off creators to produce breakout hits, but it also unintentionally built an atmosphere of mistrust that the company is now looking to repair, he said. The announcement follows months of negotiations with labor unions representing Hollywood writers and actors, in which the unions demanded greater transparency from studios.
Netflix is publishing the raw data in the name of such transparency, which “creates a better environment for the [writers’ and actors’] guilds, for us, for the producers, and for the press,” according to Sarandos. While advertisers might find this data useful in making decisions on how to spend their budgets, Netflix will continue to use third-party data to determine the cost of ads.
But the data, while informative, doesn’t give a total picture of the company. Since it has set six-month parameters, it isn’t an objective gauge of popularity. Wednesday, for example, premiered in November while the hours viewed metric begins in January. The show ranks lower than Season 2 of Ginny & Georgia, which launched in early January and benefits from its early watchers being included in the metric. Netflix also has no plans to break down the data into month-by-month or country-level lists, Sarandos said, because that would offer intelligence to its competitors.
Other streaming services have largely followed Netflix’s example in guarding title-level viewership data, so Netflix’s move could lead others to follow suit. “It will be up to them,” Sarandos said, adding that competitors are in a different phase of the streaming business and that 10 years ago, Netflix thought differently about sharing data as well.
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2nd UPDATE, 10:29 PM– EXCLUSIVE: The actors union and the studios have finally called it a night on their latest talks in search of a new three-year contract.
In the last 30 minutes or so, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP ended a long bargaining session that started this afternoon. The thinking is they will resume negotiations on the 117th day of the strike — tomorrow, November 7. However, at this later hour, no definite time has been set yet for when they will meet again.
Tonight’s meeting was a virtual get together the CEO Gang of Four with joining AMPTP boss Carol Lombardini and SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, among others. Netflix‘s Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Disney’s Bob Iger have all been participating in talks directly on and off since the lasted negotiations began on October 24.
“This was a productive session, some work still required before there’s a deal,” a studio insider told Deadline tonight of the gathering that followed the guild’s response to the studios’ so-called “best, last and final offer” last week “There’s still some serious daylight between us, at least as of right now,” he added.
David Zaslav, Ted Sarandos, Donna Langley & Bob Iger
Getty
As has been the case for months, AI remains one of the major issues that divides the guild and the studios. The latter are looking to seal the deal with what one source called “an expanded version of what the WGA agreed to.” The former want project specific protections on scans of performers and re-use of their likenesses. Well-positioned sources on both sides admit that part of the problem they are having is coming up with effective guardrails for a technology that is evolving in leaps and bounds.
1st UPDATE, 4:20 PM: As the back and forth between SAG-AFTRA and the studios continues Monday, an end to the 116-day actors strike may not be imminent.
“There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI,” the guild said in a letter to members in the last hour. “We will keep you informed as events unfold.”
Here’s the full letter:
Dear Member,
This morning our negotiators formally responded to the AMPTP’s “Last, Best & Final” offer.
Please know every member of our TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee is determined to secure the right deal and thereby bring this strike to an end responsibly.
There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI. We will keep you informed as events unfold.
In solidarity and gratitude,
Your TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee
The letter follows the guild delivering their response to the studios’ “last, best & final” offer on a new TV and movie contract earlier in the day. As Deadline reported, the parties are scheduling new negotiations which could begin as soon as this evening.
AI has been one of the primary sticking points between the sides since the beginning of their initial talks in June. Since that time, the technology has evolved so rapidly that there are questions on both sides as to how many protections could actually be put into a new three-year deal.
“It’s not bulletproof, everyone has to recognize that,” a studio executive told Deadline today about any potential AI agreement. With IATSE and Teamsters negotiations coming next year, the exec noted that it’s just a matter of months before studios will be back in deliberations with the likes of the DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA on the next three-year contract.
PREVIOUSLY, 2:38 PM: EXCLUSIVE: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be heading back to negotiations within hours.
The two sides are hoping to speak virtually later today and perhaps into the night, we hear.
As of right now, no meetings have been formally set, according to a guild source, but they are expecting to lock in a time “very soon.”
It is unclear at present whether the CEO Gang of Four — NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — will be participating in these new talks, which are said to include guild Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini.
That response was “measured,” as a guild member close to talks tells us on this 116th day of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The guild spent most of the weekend “reviewing” the hundreds of pages of the proposal from the studios — a proposal that is a response to SAG-AFTRA’s “comprehensive counter” of late October.
“Everybody knows where everybody stands,” a studio insider told Deadline this afternoon. “Now, it’s about bringing it home, if we can,” he added with some optimism. Despite the ominous tone of the studios’ most recent offer, the tactic never truly excluded having talks between both sides continue into this week.
With “a lot to digest” for the SAG-AFTRA in the studio’s offer, according to one source, details reportedly include the highest wage increases for actors in 40 years. Additionally, there was a 100% uptick in performance compensation bonuses for high-budget streaming series and films in the AMPTP package, which a boatload of CEOs got on a brief Zoom call on November 4 to brief guild brass. Perhaps the crown jewel in the studios’ package is what have been called “full” AI protections. Put together, along with health and pension fund contributions and more, the execs feel their offer went “a long way to what SAG wanted,” per an industry source over the weekend.
Or, as Netflix’s co-CEO Sarandos told SAG-AFTRA leaders on Saturday, “We didn’t just come toward you, we came all the way to you.” If execs thought that was going to get them across the line by now, clearly they were disappointed. One insider on the studio side, expecting a deal Sunday night, informed us they had to pull the plug on a scheduled production that was getting ramped up today.
You’ll remember that it’s tricky for TV and feature productions to shoot, even though the writers strike has ended. SAG-AFTRA pickets were out in full force, shutting down a B-roll shoot with extras of Netflix’s Nicole Kidman limited series The Perfect Couple in Nantucket on September 28. It doesn’t matter where Hollywood is shooting; the guild will keep them in check. The problem with The Perfect Couple was that it was using non-guild members as extras on camera, which was a big no-no for local union actors in Massachusetts.
The combination of the now-resolved WGA strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike is estimated to have cost the California economy over $6.5 billion so far. With guild members united but feeling the financial squeeze, another fallout aspect of the nearly total shutdown of production has been the loss of 45,000 entertainment industry jobs.
If a new deal is reached, the turnaround on how fast actors can go back to work and promote new TV series and films remains in question. Given the size of SAG-AFTRA at 160,000 members, it’s figured that actors’ return to work during a contract ratification period might not be as feasible as it was for the 12,000-strong WGA, whose members returned before a final vote on their new contract.
In that context, SAG-AFTRA members and their allies were out in force in front of studio lots and offices in Los Angeles and New York today, with a near full week of picketing planned as of right now. This week also will see two of the top-tier CEOs facing Wall Street scrutiny as both Warner Bros Discovery and Disney release their latest quarterly earnings and project into the New Year.
Reed Hastings, the Netflix cofounder who led the company for more than two decades as it pivoted from a DVD-by-mail business into a streaming juggernaut, is stepping down from his role as co-CEO. He will become Netflix’s executive chairman, leaving day-to-day management of the company to two of his lieutenants, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.
Hastings said that the decision to step away from the CEO role was part of a yearslong succession plan, likening the move to those made by famous founders Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. In 2020, he promoted Sarandos—the company’s longtime content chief and architect of its push into original programming—to the role of co-CEO and product chief Peters to the role of chief operating officer and increasingly delegated the management of the company to them. “It was a baptism by fire, given COVID and recent challenges within our business,” Hastings said in a statement. “But they’ve both managed incredibly well, ensuring Netflix continues to improve and developing a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue and earnings growth. So the board and I believe it’s the right time to complete my succession.” Hastings added that he plans to spend more time on philanthropy, though he will “remain very focused on Netflix stock doing well.”
As part of the leadership reshuffle, global head of television Bela Bajaria will succeed Sarandos as chief content officer. Film head Scott Stuber will take on a new role as chairman of Netflix’s film business. In a statement, Sarandos thanks Hastings for his leadership, mentorship, and friendship. “We’ve all learned so much from his intellectual rigor, honesty and willingness to take big bets—and we look forward to working with him for many more years to come,” he said, adding that Bajaria and Stuber are “outstanding creative executives with proven track records at Netflix.”
Close Netflix watchers won’t exactly be surprised by the news that Hastings, 62, is passing the baton. Though he told investors in 2020 that he was “in for a decade,” the decision to name Sarandos as co-CEO and promote Peters to COO indicated that he was ready to take a step back from day-to-day management. That same year, he published a book of management advice based on his years running Netflix. It shed light on his unconventional leadership style and its role in birthing a corporate culture that allowed Netflix to adapt and grow during its first two decades.
But like many corporate leaders, Hastings has faced a roller coaster few years. Netflix saw an early boom in its business as people found themselves stuck at home with little to do, adding a record 36.6 million global subscribers in 2020. But it hit a rough patch in 2022 as it faced new competition in streaming and as COVID restrictions lifted, and it reported its first loss in subscribers since 2011. Netflix responded to the challenges by announcing plans to crack down on password sharing and launching an ad-supported streaming product, something that Hastings previously swore he would never do. Its business improved in the second half of 2022, and the company added 8.9 million members for the full year, its lowest rate of growth in more than a decade.
Hastings has a reputation for being a touch eccentric. He likes to wear Netflix-branded merchandise during the company’s earnings calls and made headlines in 2017 when he declared that the company’s biggest competition was sleep. When Netflix passed 200 million subscribers, the billionaire—whom Forbes estimates is worth $3.3 billion—celebrated with a steak from Denny’s. He is a passionate supporter of charter schools and advocate for children’s education.
Netflix said Wednesday it plans to build a state-of-the-art production facility at a former Army base at the Jersey Shore that will cost more than $900 million, and create thousands of jobs.
The subscription video streaming company will pay $55 million for a 292-acre site on the former Fort Monmouth military base in Eatontown and Oceanport.
The California-based company plans an additional $848 million worth of investments in 12 sound stages and for other uses related to the film industry.
“We’re thrilled to continue and expand our significant investment in New Jersey and North America,” said Ted Sarandos, the company’s co-CEO and chief content officer. “We believe a Netflix studio can boost the local and state economy with thousands of new jobs and billions in economic output, while sparking a vibrant production ecosystem in New Jersey.”
The announcement was made Wednesday evening, following a vote by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority to accept Netflix’s bid over three competing offers.
“This transformative investment will serve as a cornerstone in our efforts to create a thriving industry from whole cloth,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat. “As a result of nearly a billion dollars in film production spending, New Jersey will further solidify its status as an emerging national leader in the television and film industries.”
He also said the project will create new housing, hotel and film-related businesses in the area, which has suffered economically since the Army closed the base in 2011.
The project is due to be completed in two phases over the course of several years.
The first will include the construction of a dozen sound stages, each ranging in size from 15,000 to 40,000 square feet (around 1,400 to 3,700 square meters).
Additional work may include office space, production services buildings and related studio space with the potential for consumer-focused components including retail uses.
“We are thrilled by the promise this Netflix project will deliver,” said Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. “Jobs and innovation are at the heart of this Netflix-New Jersey partnership, just as they were throughout Fort Monmouth’s rich history.”
The plan still needs numerous levels of approvals from local and state officials.
Another TV and film production studio is set to be built in New Jersey on the site of a now-demolished public housing complex in Newark. The $125 million, 12-acres studio will be anchored by global entertainment provider Lionsgate, officials announced in May.
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