Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos
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While Netflix has expanded the type of programming it offers, recently branching out into live sports and other events, co-CEO Ted Sarandos indicated in a new interview that there’s no news for Netflix.
“We don’t do news and stuff like that because I think there’s a lot of other outlets for that.” People don’t look to us for that,” – Sarandos told him TThe New York Times In an extensive interview It hit the Internet Saturday when asked what’s wrong with Netflix, but the executive whose company launched a commercial a year ago said in the same response that he’s open to new things: I don’t think there’s a clean answer, because the best version of something can It should work really well for Netflix, but it hasn’t until now.”
After Netflix’s first in-person presentation last week, CNN acknowledged That despite the popular streamer’s foray into different types of content, it still lacks a live or pre-recorded newscast and doesn’t seem interested in changing that.
“Entertainment platforms don’t care about news,” an anonymous insider told CNN. “Their audience doesn’t want that, and it can be polarizing. It’s just not worth it to them.”
elsewhere First In the interview, Sarandos talked about the streamer’s latest UK hit, baby deersuggesting that its popularity was at least partly due to the Netflix algorithm.
“There was a time when something like that baby deer Not even seen in the United States. And if it was, it would be on PBS once,” Sarandos said. It’s very, very big in the UK and, as Netflix does, it gets into the algorithm and starts showing more and more, because when something is that big in one country, there’s likely to be a lot of audience. outside of this country. And it was a huge hit all over the world.”
In addition, Sarandos talked about how he believes international series can work in the US without having to be engineered for American audiences.
“You don’t have to adapt your story in America for it to work. If your film, if your film works, if your TV series works in your home country, it has to be very authentic,” he said. “And I think what international audiences get is that authenticity. When you try to engineer something to travel, it doesn’t really appeal to anyone. I can’t think of anything we’ve done that’s made for a trip that’s actually traveled. “
Last week, Netflix released its list of the most-watched series and movies of the second half of 2023, with international programming scoring high on the list of most-watched series (as measured by the streamer metric (total hours watched divided by run time). Four of the top six shows originated outside the US, including German miniseries dear childThird part of France Lupine and British shows Who is Erin Carter? and Sexual education Season four. and his best streak for the second half of 2023, one pieceis a US-Japan co-production.
Throughout the interview, Sarandos emphasizes Netflix’s “customer view of quality,” praises the live roast of Tom Brady as a hot topic of discussion, and highlights her strong performance in the rom-com with “the great” Lindsay Lohan. Irish desireDespite his love of rom-coms First The reporter was filming in the cinema.
“I go by the numbers, how many people are watching. I mean, people watch everything. People generally turn off what they don’t like in an on-demand world,” Sarandos said Irish desire.
A Times reporter claims that fans of such films are “all too willing to see things through to the bitter end”.
Still, Sarandos feels Irish desire It has its place, comparing it to other TV and movie offerings, saying it’s “at the high end of the Hallmark scale” but “not in the middle.” [Searchlight] scale.”
In the second part of the interview, among others, where Sarandos mentions “must-see news,” he again praises the breadth of the streamer’s library and how a project that resonates with a large audience indicates that it’s a “quality” TV show or movie.
its about Irish desire Again, Sarandos said, “We all have these great contradictions even within ourselves. I love A crownAnd I love it is it a cake And I love them both equally, which makes no sense! When I think about it and I think, what are we trying to do? We strive to make great films. We define quality from the audience’s perspective. So if the audience likes the movie, that’s great. This is quality. Irish Wish may not have scratched your itch, but 65 million people have watched this movie. It is a huge hit and people love it. Critics and reviews are great things. We want to please everyone. But sometimes the films we make are not made for criticism. But for the audience that loves it, they love it. “
As for what worries him going forward, Sarandos said he’s mostly concerned about “internal enforcement.”
“It’s a very different company with 270 million subscribers worldwide than when I joined 175,000 subscribers getting DVDs in the US,” he said. “So how do you grow a company, how do you not be too nostalgic, how do you not be too romantic about the past. Movies and games, television and stand-up comedy are all true art forms. Otherwise, it just kills an hour and then I’m too worried about TikTok.
