In a new interview with Bloomberg, the co-CEOs of Netflix – Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters – put an unsurprisingly positive spin on how things are going at the streaming giant, which had a tumultuous 2022. They claim that they are very much still leading the way in the market, with the likes of Disney Plus and HBO Max playing catch-up.
As Sarandos says; “It’s easy to talk about streaming in one big, broad brush, but there is Netflix and there is everyone else trying to figure out how to do what Netflix is doing.” And they believe that they can make giant hits like Wednesday or Glass Onion happen every week. Peters says; “We’re just getting started to make Squid Game not an unusual thing, but basically something that happens literally every week.”
Regarding the criticism that Netflix are cancel-happy, Sarandos says; “We have never canceled a successful show. A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget. The key to it is you have to be able to talk to a small audience on a small budget and a large audience at a large budget. If you do that well, you can do that forever.” Obviously the definitions of ‘successful’ are going to vary a lot – depending on whether you’re Netflix CEO or a fan of certain shows.
Fans of cancelled shows including Warrior Nun, The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself, The Midnight Club (and more) are not happy about Sarandos’ comments. Regarding the future, Peters says; “We’re in a very stable position and our job is to basically sprint ahead and run as fast as we can.”
And Sarandos concludes; “For years we did the ‘what if’ scenarios. What if Disney gets into the direct-to-consumer business? What if Warner Discovery and HBO get into it? For the last three years they’ve been all-in with all the fire power at very low prices and all those things. And here we are and we’re growing engagement, profit and revenue. I’m super pleased with it and I think our competitors will have their hands full.”
Check out our guide to the best Netflix series and the best Netflix movies.