Since the record-breaking performance of Squid Game two years ago, it’s been apparent that Korean dramas are capable of driving significant global audience for Netflix.

Netflix signaled last year that it would allocate more of its annual $17 billion content budget to local Korean productions. And with Hollywood’s writers’ strike in full effect, the platform has worked to aggressively surface its Korean shows for users in recent weeks. Last week, for example, Korean gangster drama Bloodhounds was the top TV show on Netflix’s global platform. 

With the Korean government pledging last week to invest $395 million to help local streaming companies compete with Netflix, it wasn’t surprising to see Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos visit Seoul this week in an attempt to protect the streaming company’s golden goose, which has also produced other recent Netflix hits including The Glory and Extraordinary Attorney Woo. 

According to Sarandos, Netflix is set to majorly scale up its spending in the market with a $2.5 billion investment toward producing more Korean drama series, reality shows and movies. This hefty sum marks a doubling of Netflix’s previous spending since entering the market in 2016 and is five times more than the $500 million invested in 2021.

Speaking at a Thursday press conference (which was covered by the Penske Showbiz press), Sarandos emphasized to Korean officials that more local writers, directors and actors are working more and catching more career breaks because of this investment. 

“Between 2022 and 2025 for example, one in five of our titles made for Netflix will come from a first-time writer or first-time director,” Sarandos said.  

He noted that 90% of viewing for Korean romance titles comes from outside the region.

“In the longer term, we need to learn, adapt and innovate together,” Sarandos said. “It’s not always going to be easy as the audiences are incredibly demanding … but we are committed to the partnership because we have seen first-hand how much our members love K-content.”

However, this ambitious plan has raised concerns among local filmmakers and other industry denizens, who fear that such a substantial investment could marginalize local filmmakers and hinder their ability to compete with the streaming giant. 

Some question if Netflix is compensating its producers fairly. Despite the astonishing success of Squid Game, for example, director Hwang Dong-hyuk and the production crew received no additional incentive bonuses or income to acknowledge the show’s unexpected global dominance. 

“Content creators are concerned about how to distribute profits,” Climax Studio CEO Byun Seung-Min said in an interview with Deadline. “I hope we can work together to double them.”

In response to these concerns, Sarandos has tried to reassure stakeholders that Netflix is committed to providing fair compensation to creators, producers and studios. 

“It’s a very competitive market, so any deal that we make, we’re typically in competition with others for the same projects,“ Sarandos said. ”So we compensate at the very top of the market.”

However, there are lingering apprehensions among locals about Netflix's insistence on securing exclusive intellectual property rights, which could potentially limit the rights and opportunities available to Korean creators.

“It is important to note that Netflix’s possession of intellectual property rights has been a source of controversy,” said associate professor of East Asian popular culture Kwon Jung-Min in an interview with DW.com. She said the streaming company’s monopoly also threatens local streaming services such as Watcha, Tving and Wavve. 

Recognizing the need to level the playing field, the Korean government has pledged to support local streaming platforms with a substantial infusion of $390 million. While this injection of funds is significant, it falls short when compared to Netflix’s monumental budget.

Unlike the European Union, South Korea currently lacks legislation mandating foreign streaming services to invest in local content, exacerbating the concerns of local filmmakers. 

“The government needs to come up with a system to ensure that excess profits can be returned to South Korean creators,” said Lim Jong-too, a professor at Sejong University, a private school in Seoul. 

The company Netflix has already come into legal conflict with South Korean mobile carrier SK Broadband over a refusal to pay network usage fees. The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of the broadband company in April, saying Netflix must make restitution payments. Netflix has since appealed the decision.

Netflix announced a series of key title promotions for its top-level managers starting at the very top, with Reed Hastings moving on from his co-CEO position to the role of executive chairman. 

Meanwhile, 14-year company veteran Greg Peters has been upped from chief operating officer to co-CEO, alongside Ted Sarandos, who himself was moved up from chief content officer in 2020. 

The co-founder of Netflix, Hastings was the only chief executive officer the streaming company had ever had until Sarandos was bumped up to co-CEO. 

Also read: Netflix Has Huge Q4, Exceeds Guidance on Revenue and Subscribers

“Ted and I have worked together for many years — building tremendous trust and respect for each other,” Peters said in a statement released Thursday in Netflix’s quarterly letter to shareholders. “We’re also motivated by the same goal: a desire to better serve our members so that we can continue to grow our business.”

For his part, Hastings said that he, Peters and Sarandos have been discussing the transition for some time.

“We dream of the whole world finding their entertainment on Netflix,” Hastings said. “And the three of us have been working together for 15 years trying to figure out how to get through this issue, that issue, and how to grow. I couldn’t be happier to complete our succession process.”

Also, Bela Bajaria has been upped to chief content officer, and Scott Stuber has become chairman of Netflix Film. 

"Bela and Scott are outstanding creative executives with proven track records at Netflix," Sarandos added. "In 2022, we premiered many of our most popular series and films in Netflix history, including Wednesday, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Purple Hearts, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Adam Project and Harry & Meghan — a testament to their leadership and creativity. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside them as we seek to delight audiences for years to come.” ■

With Netflix making big changes — showing commercials, cutting down on password sharing — co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos is making big changes in the way he gets paid.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix will pay Sarandos a $3 million salary in 2023, much less than his $20 million salary in 2022.

Sarandos is being allocated stock options worth $20 million, unchanged from this year, but in 2023 he will be looking to get a bonus, unlike last year when he wasn’t part of the bonus program. The target amount is $17 million.

Putting it all together Netflix expects Sarandos' total compensation to be $40 million, the same as in 2022.

Netflix’s chairman and co-CEO Reed Hastings is looking for the same pay as 2022 in the New Year, with a $650,000 salary and stock options worth $34 million.

In 2021, Hasting actually got total compensation of $40.8 million down 6% from 2020. Sarandos’ total compensation fell $3% to $38.2 million.

Greg Peters, COO and chief product officer at Netflix, is following Sarandos’ path for 2023, taking a smaller salary — $1.5 million, down from $16 million in 2022 — but working toward a $10.5 million bonus. Peters is also getting options worth $12 million, up from $8 million last year, for a total of $24 million like in 2022. 

CFO Spencer Neuman will again get a $7 million salary and $7 million in stock options.

Chief Legal Officer David Hyman is getting a $4 million salary and $7 million in stock options. He was scheduled to get a $6 million salary and $4 million in stock options in 2022.

Rachel Whetstone, chief communications officer, is set to get a $5.7 million salary and $800,00 in stock options. In 2022 she was supposed to get a $5.5 million salary and $1 million in options. ■

For all the hype surrounding Netflix's introduction of a cheaper ad-supported service tier, the $6.99-a-month "Basic with Ads" is, well, pretty basic. 

Speaking Tuesday at the UBS TMT conference, however, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streaming company will eventually add more tier options to its ad-supported portfolio.

“We have multiple tiers today, so it’s likely we’ll have multiple ad tiers over time, but nothing to talk about yet,” Sarandos said. “And the product itself will evolve, I suspect, pretty dramatically, but slowly, gradually.”

Currently, for Basic with Ads, only one viewer can use the account at a time. The screen resolution is limited to 720p, which is technically high-definition ... but not true HD, which is 1,080p pixel resolution. 

Users can't download content for offline viewing. And until Netflix works out licensing details with content owners, 10% of the programs aren't available in Basic with Ads. (Sarandos said Netflix is still working on that, too.)

Speaking on other Netflix topics, Sarandos confirmed that a crackdown on Netflix account freeloaders is indeed occurring in 2023, and that not everyone will be happy about it ... initially. 

“There are folks who are enjoying Netflix, literally for free today,” Sarandos said. “So, they’re getting a lot of value out of it. I think they’ll be happy to have their own account.”

And with Netflix missing out on several key sports rights deals recently, including Formula One racing, Sarandos said the company has no plans to enter live sports anytime soon. 

“We’ve not seen a profit path to renting big sports,” Sarandos said at the conference. “We’re not anti-sports, we’re just pro-profit.”

Netflix mentioned the term "inflation" just once in its first-quarter letter to shareholders, in which it outlined the factors that the streaming company believes have stalled its once incendiary growth. 

Inflation was rattled off as part of a group of "macro-economic" factors, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that were collectively ranked fourth and last on a numerical list of reasons Netflix gave for its suddenly halted customer and revenue expansion. The supply chain's impact on smart TV proliferation, password sharing and competition from new Streaming Wars competitors were listed as Nos. 1-3. 

However, asked last week by French newspaper LeJDD about his company's business woes, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos seemed to lead with inflation's impact on household budgets.

He also mentioned Russia and slowing shipments of smart TVS, but the messaging now seems to prioritize the macro-economic at the top, with Sarandos noting, "Every customer is asking the question of the value of a subscription in relation to its cost." 

While Netflix seems to have honed its corporate messaging in on the economy since its April 19 "Black Tuesday" Q1 earnings report, forecasters on the outside are beginning to foretell bleak predictions for Tuesday, July 19, the day Netflix delivers its second-quarter earnings report. 

Writing for subscription newsletter The Ankler, for example, Entertainment Strategy Guy suggests that Netflix -- which forecasted 2 million lost subscribers globally in Q2 -- could have lost that number in the U.S. and Canada alone from April - June.  

The "ESG" says recent research reports from Antenna, Hedgeye Risk Management and Sensor Tower are the basis for this dour prediction. 

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos used a keynote appearance at the Cannes Lions conference in France Thursday to confirm partnership talks with Roku, Google and Comcast for ad sales, but he shot down rumors that Netflix might actually buy Roku. 

“We don’t need it,” Sarandos told his interviewer, technology journalist Kara Swisher,  when asked about a possible Roku acquisition. “I don’t know where that came from,” he added, referring to the rumor itself. 

Rumors of a possible acquisition of Roku by Netflix emerged earlier this month, when Roku employees were suddenly blocked from selling their company stock. 

Facing erosion of its global subscriber base and declining revenue growth, Netflix is trying to quickly ramp up the ability to integrate and sell advertising for a discounted tier only partly subsidized by subscription fees. The logic behind speculation was that Netflix could quickly ramp up ad sales acumen by purchasing a company like Roku with expertise in advanced advertising — and a depressed stock valuation. 

In terms of the partnership talks, Sarandos said Netflix’s plan is to create “a pretty easy entry to the market, which we’ll build on and iterate to make Netflix a destination for users. What we’ll do first is not representative of what the product will be ultimately. Start light, keep it simple and iterate fast.”

HBO Max launched a $9.99-a-month partially ad-supported alternative to its flagship $14.99 service last year, and Disney is looking to a similar model for Disney Plus. Netflix wants to launch its ad-supported tier by the end of 2022.

With a recessionary economic environment and high inflation taking hold, time may be of the essence. 

A survey conducted by Evercore ISI in May found that Netflix user satisfaction fell 7% during the second quarter to the lowest point for the service since 2012.

For his part, however, Sarandos conveyed no rush. 

“We’re in the early days of this evolution of watching — the way that people watch and consume television,” he told Swisher. “Today, we’re about 10% of what people do on TV, and about 30% of the streaming. We look at that and say there’s still a lot of time that people are watching linear TV. You look at the growth of streaming as a percentage of total, and there’s a lot of room to grow.”

Netflix's top content executives have launched a 'charm offensive' in the creative community, attempting to persuade filmmakers and TV show-runners that they're still on track to spend $17 billion on programming this year. They also want to let everyone know that cutting back on content is not part of their strategy to reverse the current downward trajectories of subscriber growth and revenue. 

According to Variety, which said it spoke to creatives who recently took some of those in-person and phone meetings, the push is being led by Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, along with Scott Stuber, global head of film for Netflix, and Bela Bajaria, global head of TV. 

Notably, at last month's Cannes Film Festival, Netflix spent $50 million to acquire the movie project Pain Hustlers, which has Harry Potter director David Yates and star Emily Blunt attached to it. And as Variety also noted, Netflix's announcement last week of a Squid Game-inspired reality competition series has a huge $4.56 million grand prize attached to it. 

Publicly, the messaging has been consistent with these insider reports.

Keynoting the Banff Film Festival last week, Bajaria conducted a little rhetorical sand-bagging, noting that Netflix now has the feeling of an "underdog" in the global acquisitions market. But she also said, “This year, we’re expected to spend $17 billion on content, that hasn’t changed in that way.”

Notably, in the shareholder letter that accompanied its April 19 "Black Tuesday" earnings report, Netflix said it would be "doubling down on story development and creative excellence." But in its action plan to reaccelerate growth, it didn't mention cutting its content spending. 

For his part, Sarandos is set to make a public speaking appearance Thursday at the advertising-focused Cannes Lions. 

Netflix stock is trading at over $178 a share on the Nasdaq as of Wednesday early afternoon, up about 5% for the day ... but by more than 70% since January. 

The Los Gatos, Calif.-based streaming company has made some pivots of late: it's working on a scheme in Latin America to crack down on password-sharers; and its developing a cheaper, partially ad-supported tier. 

Meanwhile, after laying off around 150 staffers last month, Netflix reportedly has plans to let more workers go this week. 

Top execs at Netflix got less compensation in 2021, according to a proxy statement filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Co-CEO Reed Hastings got total compensation of $40.8 million in 2021, down 6%  from $43.2 million in 2020.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s other co-CEO, saw his pay drop 3% to $38.2 million from $39.3 million a year ago.

“2020 presented unprecedented challenges for Netflix and the world, as we navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Named Executive Officers continued to execute our strategies and deliver strong performance throughout 2020 amidst the continuously evolving and challenging environment,” Netflix said in the proxy.

COO and chief product officer Greg Peter’s compensation dropped to $20.4 million from $20.8 million, CFO  Spencer Neuman’s pay slipped to $12.5 million from $12.9 million, chief legal officer David Hayman’s pay dipped to $10.2 million from $10.5 million and Rachel Whetstone, the company’s chief financial officer got $5.3 million, down from $5.4 million. ■

Netflix said co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos has been allocated $20 million in stock options for 2022, on top of his $20 million salary.

The options allocation is much bigger than for 2021, when Sarandos’ stock options were pegged at $14.6 million, according to an SEC filing Tuesday.

Co-CEO Reed Hastings salary was at $650,000 with $34 million in stock options, just like a year ago.

Other named Netflix executives are also set to get bigger paydays in 2022.

CFO Spencer Neumann’s 2022 salary rises to $7 million from $6 million a year ago. His stock option allocation rises to $7 million from $5.550 million.

Greg Peter, Netflix’s chief product officer sees his salary jumping to $16 million from $12 million, with his option allocation increasing to $8 million  from $6.9 million.

David Hyman, chief legal officer and secretary, will get $6 million in salary, up from $4.725 million, and $5 million in options, up from $4.725 million.

Netflix also disclosed that Rachel Whetstone, chief communications officer, will have a salary of $5.5 million and options worth $1 million. Her pay plan was not disclosed last year.

So, Netflix had a pretty good quarter, punctuated by a really bad week. 

It’s always bracing to see a giant corporation at the forefront of the entertainment industry stumbling through life’s painful dualities. It’s kind of reassuring to see that we’re all fallible, as humans and as organizations composed of humans. The question is whether the really bad week or the pretty good quarter will matter more to this particular organization in the long run.

Also read: Sarandos' 'The Closer' Apology Tour 'Misses the Point,' Fired Employee Says

Third quarter earnings were announced after market close on Tuesday, with subscriber growth about 25% higher than forecast, some 4.4 million adds, with a forecast to add 8.5 million more this quarter.

During the earnings call, Netflix execs pronounced themselves largely pleased with an increasingly strong quarter boosted by the thunderous arrival of all-time most-watched show Squid Game, out of Korea, along with strong showings by Spain’s La Casa de Papel, Denmark’s The Chestnut Man, and Britain’s Sex Education, and a record-tying sheaf of Emmy wins for shows such as The Crown and The Queen’s Gambit.

Furthermore, the success of those mostly international shows provided an emphatic endorsement of Netflix’s global strategy. As for the rest, well, it was pretty good.

“Really it boils down to it's sort of what we expected,” said CFO Spence Neumann during Tuesday afternoon’s earnings call. “We’re getting toward the tail end of the COVID choppiness. Throughout the quarter, the business remained healthy, at churn levels below 2020. Retention was healthy. Viewing was up, healthy, compared to 2019.” 

After the ho-hum earnings call, co-CEO Ted Sarandos turned to a considerably more fraught set of conversations, with Hollywood trade publications, trying to walk back previous ill-received messaging about another of Netflix’s most-watched shows, comedian Dave Chappelle’s special The Closer. 

“I screwed up,” Sarandos said, in full damage-control mode. He should have “led with more humanity” acknowledging the pain of some company employees, while also making a “blanket statement that didn’t land as it was intended.” 

Sarandos went on, “We are trying to support creative freedom and artistic expression among the artists that work at Netflix. Sometimes, and we do make sure our employees understand this, because of that—because we’re trying to entertain the world, and the world is made up of folks with a lot of different sensibilities and beliefs and senses of humor and all those things — sometimes, there will be things on Netflix that you dislike. That you even find to be harmful. Where we’ll definitely draw the line is on something that would intentionally call for physically harming other people or even remove protections. For me, intent to cause physical harm crosses the line, for sure.”

It wasn’t enough to calm down an increasingly noisy and polarizing situation.

Chappelle is a professional excrement stirrer, a remarkable and ground-breaking comedian and social observer who also has a terrible history of problematic-to-bigoted comments about LGBTQ+ people. Even as Chappelle has proven to be an incisive comedic explorer of the challenges Black people face in a frequently racist society, he has failed to examine his own limitations when talking about another set of people with nearly as thorough a history of pain and exclusion. 

Trans people and their allies took umbrage at Chappelle’s latest crummy remarks about them, and pushed to have the show taken off the service. Sarandos tried to differentiate between offensive speech and the artistic license that society still, haphazardly, grants to comedians. 

His careful line drawing didn’t play well, fueling outright mutiny in some corners of Netflix, and countless hot takes by outsiders. 

One worker leaked financial data about The Closer, and was fired. At least three other protesting workers were suspended after crossing one or another corporate line. 

Then on Wednesday, trans employees and their allies took part in a protest outside Netflix’s Hollywood production headquarters, again pushing for Chappelle’s show to go, while promising to push for company support of a list of other “firm asks.” 

The fight doesn’t seem likely to abate soon. The implications are significant not just for Netflix but for any media or technology company reaching a global audience (and the creators for those audiences), without enraging long-abused and -overlooked constituencies who are increasingly finding their voices. 

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said this week at a tech conference that he and other CEOs are navigating “a new normal” where employees expect to be able to express concerns when the company doesn’t live up to their values.  

“CEOs need to embrace the fact that in the modern workplace, people want to have a say in things too,” Pichai said. “They have to embrace that and see that as a strength.”

Encouraging that kind of two-way communication “brings accountability,” Pichai said. The company has invested in new channels to allow people to provide that feedback. “But we’ve also been more focused on explaining what we’re doing.” 

That doesn’t mean Alphabet has walked the line perfectly. Just this past year, it’s fired at least two artificial-intelligence researchers who raised ethical concerns with the company’s work. 

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish also talked at the same conference about empowering employees while striving to reach a broad array of audiences. 

“For companies at scale, serving people all over the world, there will inevitably be content that some people love and others don’t,” Bakish said, alluding to controversy last year when former ViacomCBS division Simon & Schuster agreed to publish former Vice President Mike Pence’s book. “You're going to run into some of these issues. You have to manage them with finesse. Sometimes there’s something you have to pull (from the market). We've been there before and unfortunately, we’re probably going to be there again.”

Like Pichai, Bakish counseled “lots of communications” with staff. ViacomCBS relies on monthly town halls and regular staff surveys, among other communications channels.

“People give their points of view, and that's OK,” Bakish said. “Ultimately we have to make decisions, but we believe fundamentally there should be communications, and open communications.”

But just encouraging two-way conversations isn’t enough. An Explorance study of 2,000 workers found one big reason why people are leaving their jobs during the so-called Great Resignation: “feedback that goes unheard.” 

“The survey found that a majority of employees are eager to share feedback with employers and do so in the hopes of driving positive change in their workplace,” according to an Inc. story about the study. “However, employees--including many executives--feel that all too often their feedback goes unheard and does not result in meaningful change.”

That suggests Netflix has stumbled across treacherous territory if it handles this controversy badly. 

Other parts of Hollywood are actively supporting and even courting trans creators. The Sundance Institute, for instance, just launched an intensive workshop for “transgender storytellers of color.”  Dramas about the sometimes-lethal bigotry and other challenges facing trans people are increasingly common. Even Netflix has an official employee group for its trans workers. 

Netflix has long prided itself on a unique culture of “radical openness,” encouraging frank and constant internal feedback and criticism. When you foster that environment, you have to respond to it, or lose credibility and access to talent, within the company and with creators who no longer are willing to work with you. It can also impact how audiences see your company, and whether they choose to turn from your network to someone else’s. 

It’s impossible to say whether Netflix’s really bad week will have that kind of long-lasting impact. But it’s going to be something to watch closely as Sarandos et al navigate one of their biggest challenges yet. 

Netflix managed to impress Wall Street with better than expected subscriber performance in Q3, silencing its critics for the time being and causing at least one analyst to wonder if the streaming video pioneer could knock The Walt Disney Co. from its perch atop the media landscape.

Netflix added about 4.4 million subscribers in Q3, ahead of its guidance of 3.5 million additions. That performance comes after a Q2 when the streaming giant added just 1.54 million new customers and caused some industry pundits to speculate that the company was headed for a prolonged subscriber slowdown, exacerbated by the pandemic and increased competition from other streaming services. 

The subscriber beat comes shortly after another streaming juggernaut, Disney Plus, said last month that its fiscal Q4 customer additions would be in the single-digit millions, well below past quarters. But as analysts are changing their perceptions about Disney and its streaming service, at least one believes that Netflix, which earlier this year announced plans to enter into video game production and has ongoing forays into merchandising and film and TV production, could replace the Mouse House as the premier entertainment conglomerate. 

In a research note Wednesday (Oct. 20), Barclays Group media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar noted that about eight years ago, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos’s goal was to “become HBO faster than HBO becomes us.” 

With a strong content slate expected to drive subscriber increases through Q1 2022, growth opportunities in Latin America, strong margins and the company’s unique approach to content, Sarandos may have been selling himself and the company short nearly a decade ago, according to the analyst.   

“Now HBO isn’t even in Netflix’s rear-view mirror,” Venkateshwar wrote. “Management framing of new opportunities seems to indicate that the benchmark now may be to surpass Disney’s flywheel.”

The Barclays analyst pointed to Netflix's entrance into gaming earlier this year and that other new business lines like merchandising — which he estimated is a $5 billion annual business for Disney — and the way the company sees its content as “continuous experiences” across video, gaming and live entertainment platforms, only adds to the momentum.

“This in turn could make Netflix’s business model and engagement almost impossible to replicate for most, except maybe some of the gaming platforms,” Venkateshwar wrote. 

The comparisons to Disney weren’t lost on Netflix management either. On Netflix’s quarterly video interview call, chairman and co-CEO Reed Hastings said while it could take several years, the plan is to integrate interactivity, gaming, and consumer products into its content.  

“Maybe imagine three years from now and some future Squid Game is launching, and it comes along with an incredible array of interactive or gaming options and it‘s all built into the service,” Hastings said. “And then, of course, you've got your off-Netflix aspects, the experiences that we're building out, consumer products, all of that coming together. 

“So a company like Disney is still ahead of us in some of those dimensions of putting that whole experience together, but boy, are we making progress,” Hastings continued. “And so exciting over the next three to five years, kind of closing that gap. And hope to pass them on that spectacular all-around experience.”

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos expressed regret for words he used to address staff last week, following the controversy created by comedian Dave Chappelle's latest standup special, The Closer. 

But a recently fired Netflix employee, who organized a Wednesday staff walkout in protest of the company's handling of the Chappelle matter, said Sarandos' mea culpa missed the mark. 

"Ted still misses the point, this isn’t about the special or taking it down. It’s about parity in content. All we asked for was more trans content, investment in trans talent, and promoting trans content," tweeted B. Pagels-Minor, a former Netflix senior product manager who was fired last week for allegedly leaking financial data about Netflix shows 

On Tuesday, as Netflix was delivering its buoyant third-quarter earnings report, Sarandos embarked on a kind of apology tour, delivering separate but barely distinguishable Q&As for Penske Media's veritable monopoly of Hollywood trade pubs (which includes Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter), as well as The Wall Street Journal. 

"Obviously, I screwed up that internal communication. I did that, and I screwed it up in two ways," Sarandos told Variety. 

"First and foremost, I should have led with a lot more humanity," Sarandos said in his Variety interview. "Meaning, I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged up front before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything. I didn’t do that. That was uncharacteristic for me, and it was moving fast and we were trying to answer some really specific questions that were floating. We landed with some things that were much more blanket and matter-of-fact that are not at all accurate.

"Of course storytelling has real impact in the real world," Sarandos added, walking back his earlier comment. "I reiterate that because it’s why I work here, it’s why we do what we do. 

Earlier, in leaked company memos, Sarandos said controversial jokes made by Chappelle in The Closer targeting the trans community don't cause "real world harm." The co-CEO's terminology did little to quell growing dissent within Netflix among LGBTQ staff members, one of whom was fired last week for allegedly releasing data to the press in an effort inspired by opposition to The Closer.

That employee, later identified as veteran Silicon Valley technologist and self-described "thought leader" Pagels-Minor, helped Wednesday's Netflix staff walkout at the company's Hollywood location. Participating staff members were met by what were reportedly dozens of LGBTQ-supporting protesters and Chappelle-backing counter-protesters on Vine Street, outside the Netflix Hollywood headquarters. 

Reuters captured video of the event below:

For his part, Pagels-Minor has conceded to having accessed the data in question, which shows Netflix paying over $20 million for recent Chappelle comedy specials, but getting back little economic value compared to other recent Netflix titles. Pagels-Minor, however, denies having leaked the data.

Before Wednesday's walkout, Netflix released this statement: “We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that’s been caused. We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content.”

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has released a second company-wide memo in less than a week, again defending the streaming service's decision not to pull or alter comedian Dave Chappelle's latest standup special, The Closer, following outrage from the transgender community. 

Also read - Netflix's Sarandos Defends Chappelle's 'Closer': 'We Work Hard to Support Creative Freedom'

“Chappelle makes harsh jokes about many different groups, which is his style and a reason his fans love his comedy and commentary,” Sarandos wrote in an email, which was first intercepted and reported by Variety. “Stand-up comedians often expose issues that are uncomfortable because the art by nature is a highly provocative. As a leadership team, we do not believe that The Closer is intended to incite hatred or violence against anyone."

Sarandos also said that The Closer causes no "real world harm.

“The strongest evidence to support this is that violence on screens has grown hugely over the last 30 years, especially with first party shooter games, and yet violent crime has fallen significantly in many countries,” Sarandos added. “Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse—or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy—without it causing them to harm others.”

Netflix has faced criticism, both internally and externally in places like Twitter, for its decision to drop Chappelle's latest special, in which he uses pointed jokes to highlight claims of hypocrisy and other issues within the LGBTQ community. 

Earlier this week, Netflix suspended three employees for crashing a virtual meeting to discuss the PR crisis, only to reinstate them based on the fact that their intentions were allegedly pure. 

Now, one of those employees, software engineer Tera Field, is among a number of transgender Netflix staffers planning to walk off the job next week. 

Meanwhile, transgender writer-producer Jaclyn Moore, the creative force behind Netflix's Dear White People, said she will no longer work for Netflix.

However, in an earlier staff email, Sarandos lauded the popularity of The Closer and other Chappelle comedy specials, noting that Netflix intends to keep working with the comic. In fact, according to leaked company data, Chappelle's latest special was watched by 10 million accounts within its first week on the service. 

Conceding that the transition to video streaming has resulted in a scarcity of available program performance data, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told interviewer Kara Swisher during Monday's Code Conference in Beverly Hills that Netflix is going to make an effort to change things. 

“We’re trying to be more transparent with the market and talent and everybody,” Sarandos said. “It’s a big black box for everybody.”

As a good faith effort, Sarandos proceeded to share two charts revealing the top 10 most watched original movies and TV shows appearing on Netflix so far. 

These charts largely contained data already released by Netflix, but put it all in two unified graphics. Even though the presentation was long on sizzle and lean on steak, these graphics wowed the social internet in the late afternoon Monday, with streaming biz influencers falling all over themselves to find smart things to say about them. 

One graphic revealed Netflix's top original shows based on minutes viewed in their first 28 days on the platform. (Again, we already knew Bridgerton and Bird Box were the biggest hits.)

The other graphic presented by Sarandos revealed Netflix's top originals based on video starts (at least two minutes of watching) in the first 28 days on the platform. The titles are largely the same, save for a few exceptions. 

Perhaps more notable, Sarandos said that the Korean thriller Squid Game, which was just released Sept. 17, could become the platform's all-time most viewed show once it completes its first four weeks on Netflix. 

“There’s a show on Netflix right now that is the number one in the world," Sarandos said. "Like, everywhere in the world. It’s called Squid Game. Squid Game will definitely be our biggest non-English language show in the world, for sure. It’s only been out for nine days, and it’s a very good chance it’s going to be our biggest show ever.”

Sarandos also added details on Netflix's decision to take down Chappelle's Show last November, at the creator's request. 

“We did what I felt was the right thing by Dave, and then the rest of the industry kind of followed," he said. "I am betting forward on our long-term relationship with Dave, not trying to arbitrage something from the past. But I would like to make that content available for people and they should be under deals that are constructive. Next week, we’ll put all 108 episodes of Seinfeld on. It’s been incredibly lucrative for all the talent on that show in every form of distribution, and Dave just didn’t have a deal like that in the beginning of his career.”

Sarandos, meanwhile, also seemed to throw a little shade at Apple TV Plus, calling the platform's Ted Lasso an "awards-y" show with a relatively small audience. 

The pandemic boosted Netflix’s subscriber numbers in 2020 and it also boosted compensation for the streaming company’s top executive.

Co-CEO and chairman Reed Hastings got $43.2 million in total compensation, up 12% from $38.6 million a year ago.

Also Read: Netflix Adds Just 4 Million New Subscribers in 1st Quarter

Hastings’ option awards rose to $42.4 million from $37.4 million in 2019.

Co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos’ pay climbed 13% to $39.3 million from $34.7 million. Sarandos became co-CEO last July and his salary increased to $20 million from $18 million.

Netflix’s new chief communications officer Rachel Whetstone received total compensation of $5.4 million, including a $4.8 million salary.

Netflix said that Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, the streaming company’s co-CEOs, will each earn $34.65 million for 2021, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The amount is unchanged from the compensation they were scheduled to get in 2020.

Hastings will get an annual salary of $650,000 plus an allocation of stock options worth $34 million as his compensation package.

Also Read: Netflix Promotes Sarandos to Co-CEO with Hastings

Sarandos’ salary will be $20 million. He will also get stock options worth $14.65 million.

Hastings, who is also chairman of the board, will earn a bit less than the $38.6 million he got in 2019, according to the company’s most recent proxy statement. Sarandos, who was elevated to CEO this year and remains chief content officer, will earn the same amount as in 2019.

Netflix also said that CFO Spencer Neumann will get a salary of $6 million and stock options worth $5.55 million; Gary Peters, COO and chief product officer, will get a salary of $12 million and options worth $6.9 million. And chief legal officer David Hyman will get a salary of $4.725 million and $4.725 millions in options.

Netflix said it promoted Ted Sarandos, who has spearheaded the streaming company's programming strategy, to co-CEO with Reed Hastings.

The announcement came as Netflix announced adding more than 10 million global subscribers over the three months ending June, while the world endured a global pandemic.

Related: Netflix Earnings Expected to Get Pandemic Boost

“Ted has been my partner for decades. This change makes formal what was already informal -- that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix,” said Hastings.

“Having watched Reed and Ted work together for so long, the board and I are confident this is the right step to evolve Netflix’s management structure so that we can continue to best serve our members and shareholders for years to come,” added Netflix’s lead independent director Jay Hoag.

Sarandos, who will continue as chief content officer, was also added to the Netflix board.

In the quarter, paid streaming membership rose to 192.95 million from 151.56 million a year ago and 182.86 million in the first quarter.

Net income was $720 million, or $1.59 a share, up from $271 million, or 60 cents a share, a year ago. 

Revenue rose 24.9% to $6.15 billion.

Netflix forecast that third quarter net income will grow to $954 million, or $2.09 a share on revenue of $6.33 million.

"As we indicated in our Q1’20 letter, we’re expecting paid net adds will be down year over year in the second half as our strong first half performance likely pulled forward some demand from the second half of the year," the company said in its shareholder letter. "In addition, Q3’19 included the positive impact of new seasons of both Stranger Things and La Casa de Papel (aka Money Heist). We continue to view the quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in paid net adds as not that meaningful in the context of the long run adoption of internet entertainment, which we believe provides us with many years of strong growth ahead."

The company said its main business priority is to restart production safely. It said it is furthest along in Asia-Pacific, where it never fully shut down. It is also back in production in some European countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Italy and the U.K.

"Since our content production lead time is long, our 2020 plans for launching original shows and films continue to be largely intact. For 2021, based on our current plan, we expect the paused productions will lead to a more second half weighted content slate in terms of our big titles, although we anticipate the total number of originals for the full year will still be higher than 2020," the company said in its shareholder letter. "We’ll also round out our content offering with film acquisitions like The Trial of the Chicago 7 from Aaron Sorkin and The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run (global excluding U.S. and China). We also acquired nearly completed seasons of unreleased original series like Cobra Kai (seasons 1, 2 and a brand new season 3) and Emily in Paris starring Lily Collins."

Netflix noted that the pandemic and production issues were also impacting competitors and suppliers. "With our large library of thousands of titles and strong recommendations, we believe our member satisfaction will remain high," Netflix said.

Netflix’s top executives had a good year in 2019.

Total compensation for CEO Reed Hastings rose 7% to $38.6 million. His salary was constant at $700,000. Option awards rose to $37.4 million from $34.4 million in 2018.

Chief content officer Ted Sarandos’ compensation jumped 17% to $34.7 million. His salary rose to $18 million from $12 million and he received option awards with $16.6 million.

Netflix on Tuesday announced higher first quarter earnings as viewers staying at home because of the worldwide pandemic signed up for streaming services like Netflix and consumed more content.

As the competition in the streaming world ramps up, Netflix is giving its two top executives a 10% pay raise.

In a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Netflix said its compensation committee has set the salary plus bonus for CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos at $34.65 million each for 2020.

Hastings is set to get a salary of $650,000 and a stock option allocation of $34 million.

Sarandos’ salary will be $20 million and he’s been allocated $14.65 million in stock.

Netflix, the leader in the video streaming area, was the top performing stock during the decade. But this year, new competitors joined the market, with Apple launching Apple TV+ and The Walt Disney Co. jumping in with Disney+. Disney also took full control of Hulu.

Next year, AT&T plans to launch HBO Max and Comcast’s NBCUniversal will launch Peacock.

In its filing, Netflix said that CFO Spencer Neumann will get $6.05 million and stock options worth $5.5 million, and chief product officer Greg Peters will get a salary of $12 million and $6.9 million in stock. 

Netflix chief creative officer Ted Sarandos disclosed that 26.4 million accounts watched its Martin Scorsese film The Irishman during its first seven days on the streaming service.

Sarandos, speaking at the UBS media conference Tuesday, said he expects that the gangster saga will be seen by 40 million accounts within its first 28 days.

Nielsen estimated that The Irishman had 17 million viewers in its first five days.

Sarandos noted that Netflix counts viewing differently than Nielsen. Even though The Irishman is more than 3 hours long, Netflix stuck to its system of counting only accounts that streamed 70% of the film.

But he added that people don’t watch movies alone, so those 26 million accounts could represent more people viewing.

Sarandos joked that he was getting a lot of credit for taking a big risk on The Irishman, but “betting on a Martin Scorsese mob movie with Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci doesn’t seem like a large bet to me.”

He added that unlike a traditional film, Netflix’s monetization model is different and doesn’t have to depend on a big opening weekend to have a big impact on Netflix’s bottom line.

Despite reporting its greatest quarterly subscriber growth ever in Q1, Netflix could have trouble maintaining that momentum as increasing free cash flow deficits weigh on the SVOD pioneer’s credit profile, ratings agency Fitch said Wednesday.

Netflix added 9.6 million new paying customers in Q1 -- 7.9 million internationally and 1.7 million in the U.S. -- ending the period with 148.8 million global paid subscribers. But domestic additions slowed during the period, from 2.3 million in Q1 2018, and Fitch director Patrice Cucinello wondered if the company can keep it up. That is especially concerning as new entrants -- Disney+ and Apple+ -- get ready to launch price-competitive OTT offerings later in the year.

“While Netflix plays largely in a league of its own, maintaining subscriber growth momentum in the face of competitive product launches remains a concern despite growth uninhibited by the largest price increase in its history,” Cucinello wrote.

Cucinello was mainly concerned about Netflix’s increased content investments which are funded by debt and continue to be a drag on its free cash flow. The SVOD giant raised its free cash flow deficit estimates for the year to $3.5 billion, up from expectations of about $3 billion. Fitch said it was encouraged by Netflix chief financial officer Spencer Neumann’s comments that the company is “committed to improve our cash flow profile meaningfully starting in 2020, and then each year thereafter.”

RELATED: Netflix Might Share More Viewing Data (B&C)

Fitch estimated that cash burn for 2018 was between $3 billion and $4 billion and Netflix spent more than $10 billion on content for the year. The company raised prices for new customers in January by 13% to 18% for its three tiers of service -- its biggest increase yet -- partly to fund bigger programming investments. Cucinello said that increase could be a sign of Netflix’s confidence in its position in the market: the $2 monthly increase for its most popular tier edges the company closer to rival HBO’s $15 monthly price point. 

Netflix said the price rise will be implemented more quickly this time around, by the May billing cycle all of its subscribers will pay the new prices -- again perhaps a testament to its industry dominance, but also a risk, according to Cucinello.

“The effect on Netflix's subscriber growth is uncertain, given the noticeable ramp up in high-quality, innovative original content,” Cucinello wrote. “Netflix's more modest increase in 2017 proved to be relatively uneventful in terms of subscriber growth. However, there is risk that yesterday's announcement increases churn and adversely affects the company's growth profile. Netflix's 2016 price increase resulted in a meaningful deceleration of domestic subscriber growth. Moreover, market dislocations can provide opportunities for competitors to take market share.”

Netflix continues to invest in original programming, but a key licensing deal with Disney expired this year. While Netflix has several other licensing deals in the mix, its library of licensed television shows and movies could shrink further, including from 20th Century Fox, which was purchased by Disney earlier this year.

“Large content providers such as Disney are likely to underprice Netflix as they build scale in their DTC strategies,” Cucinello wrote.

In a video call with clients and investors, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said the company has seen content leave the service before and has still managed to thrive by focusing on original programming.

“In the entire history of television, there are lots and lots of hours of programming that people watch fairly interchangeably,” Sarandos said. “But the shows that our members value us for, and the things we pay the most attention to -- if you look at our top 10 most-watched shows on Netflix, they ‘re all Netflix original brands.”

He added that in 2017 Fox let its second-window content library sunset with Netflix, and “you’ve seen how we’ve done since 2017.”

Netflix continues to have a strong slate of originals and returning series coming in the back half of the year like Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Orange is the New Black, The Crown and Money Heist. 

Netflix gave more insight into viewership habits for the quarter, saying more than 52 million households watched its original movie Triple Frontier in the first four weeks. The Highwaymen, an original film starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, was watched by more than 40 million households in that same time period and documentary FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened was watched by 20 million member households.

Netflix is amping up its originals slate, putting 85% of all new spending toward content production, chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

Speaking at MoffettNathanson’s Media & Communications Summit Monday (May 14), Sarandos said the SVOD service expects to have nearly 1,000 originals by the end of the year, about half of which have not yet premiered.

The OTT juggernaut added 7.41 million streaming subscribers worldwide in the first quarter, bringing its global customer base to about 125 million, and it leads the pack in a category forecast to continue booming. Following a gain of 41% in 2017, U.S. OTT revenue is expected to grow another 40% this year, reaching $16.6 billion, according to Convergence Research Group's study The Battle for the American Couch Potato: OTT, TV, Online.

Against that backdrop, Netflix apparently believes Peak TV's apex is still to come.

But while Sarandos evangelized Netflix's content vision, he dampened speculation that Netflix has aspirations in sports and news, saying the company has no plans at this time to pursue either.

More from the MoffettNathanson Summit | via CNBC: How Netflix Budgets New Shows

New Production Deals

Among the most high-profile of Netflix's programming investments is an exclusive production deal with writer/producer/director Ryan Murphy that kicks in July 1. Two new Murphy-produced original series are already lined up, Ratched and The Politician. 

Before luring Murphy away from his FX deal earlier this year, Netflix last summer signed prolific series creator Shonda Rhimes, long attached to ABC, to a multi-year production deal.

Recent new series orders include sci-fi drama Another Life, starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), and multi-camera comedy series Mr. Iglesias, starring Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, whose deal includes two stand-up specials as well.

Upcoming Returns

Netflix on Wednesday (May 16) released its first look at season four of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which returns this month. The season will play out in two halves, with six episodes launching May 30.

Other upcoming returns include Arrested Development (May 29) and GLOW (June 29).

Bookmark This:MCN's Complete Coverage of Netflix

Netflix has reached an agreement to make a sixth and final season of its hit House of Cards.

Production of the series was suspended after star Kevin Spacey was removed because of accusations of sexual harassment and other improper behavior.

Speaking at the UBS Media Conference in New York Monday, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said he could make an announcement about being able to bring the popular show to a conclusion.

Related: Who’s Next? Harassment Charges Roil TV

Sarandos said the season would consist of eight episodes and will premiere in 2018.

"We are excited about being able to bring some closure for the fans," Sarandos said.

He added that the agreement would benefit the 2,000 people in Baltimore who have worked on the show.

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, waved off the company's recent earnings disappointments and marshalled an array of series news to argue that Netflix has an edge despite the overall glut of programming.

In his remarks Wednesday during the company's portion of the TCA summer press tour, he derided the "mediocre" shows overwhelming viewers. Later, he clarified to reporters that Netflix itself has turned out a few mediocre titles but overall has an edge. "People are watching Netflix, on average, for two hours a day," he said. "There is no other network on television that gets that much viewing."

"When people talk about Peak TV, they talk about it through an old-media lens," he said. "But today, the viewer has total control over what shows they want to watch and how they want to get to them. And in that world, it's almost infinite the possibilities for how people can connect."

Read more at B&C.

Even before it launches its HBO nightly newscast and a documentary service on the former A&E H2 channel, Vice is laying out plans for expanding its TV and online video presence globally, and anticipates a public offering or sale in the coming year, founder/CEO Shane Smith said.

During a CNBC interview in London, Smith disclosed that Vice plans to launch at least a dozen TV networks throughout Europe during the coming year, continuing to concentrate on edgy programs for millennial audiences. He acknowledged that he move into TV is essential since 75% of the company's ad revenue comes from TV. Smith said he expects to use that money for expanded ventures into mobile and over-the-top delivery.

"You can actually take money from TV and put it into mobile, which is quite frankly more difficult to monetize," Smith said.

He offered no specific details about the upcoming U.S. launches, but said he expects revenue will near $1 billion this year and will double during the next few years. 

Vice is in acquisition talks "with everybody," at a $5 billion valuation, but that is "kind of at the top end where media could buy us today," Smith said. Hence he also is pondering a public offering.

"Around the end of this year, we're going to have to make a decision about whether we start to make the book to go public, or do a sort of larger, major strategic deal," Smith told CNBC.

During the London trip last week, Smith also revealed that Vice has produced 32 TV series  since early 2014 "for our network in America" and added that the content has been offered for pan-European regional and national deals.

"We are trying to navigate the morass of how you do telco deals simultaneous with terrestrial TV deals and keep growing our online platforms," Smith said, according to published reports. He has said he expects to announce distribution partners within the next couple months and begin TV rollout during the first quarter of 2016.

Separately, Vice has hired former Bloomberg chief content officer Josh Tyrangiel to run the company's new daily newscast for HBO; the launch date for the new five-nights-per week show has not been set. Tyrangiel had been at Bloomberg for six years.

Smith described Vice's HBO show as a venture that will "take news programming in a totally new direction. ... [It] needs the leadership of an expert who’s hungry to do things differently."  

Meanwhile, Netflix, which has accelerated its original content production, said it will add the edgy kind of documentaries that have been Vice's forte. During Netflix's recent earnings call, content chief Ted Sarandos said the streaming service could compete with Vice documentaries and with news-based shows such as HBO's Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.

"We're definitely being more adventurous in terms of the genres we're going into," Sarandos said during a presentation, during which Netflix CEO Reed Hastings asked, "What's the likelihood that we compete directly with Vice in the next two years?"

Sarandos simply said, "Probably high." 

Netflix has come a long way since the 2013 launch of House of Cards, with the over-the-top service set to offer 475 hours of original programming this year, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

Speaking during Netflix’s Television Critics Association tour session Monday, Sarandos said the OTT service, which only began offering original programming some 30 months ago, will have as many as 16 scripted shows, 12 documentary shows and 17 kids-targeted series on-air in 2015.

Sarandos talks about the value of original programming at #TCA15 in an original "MCN One Question for..." video.

Netflix’s original programming has been nominated for 34 Emmy awards, he added.

Netflix’s decision to build on its originals slate rather than on acquisitions of established shows (similar to Hulu’s recent acquisition of Seinfeld) provides the company with more flexibility in scheduling and international distribution, he said.

Sarandos would not reveal viewership numbers for any of the company’s original shows, although he said its comedy series Orange Is the New Black – the first to be Emmy nominated in both the comedy and drama categories – is the most watched original on the service.

Netflix is still bullish on its four-film deal with Adam Sandler despite the soft opening of his latest theatrical film, Pixels, Sarandos said, adding that Sandler’s appeal is very strong internationally.

Sarandos also opined on other Netflix original content:

--He said there’s still an opportunity for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to appear in the OTT service’s Fuller House comedy series. The series re-unites most of the cast from the 1980’s Full House series except for the Olsen twins, who have previously said they would not appear in the reboot.

--Netflix will roll out a Marvel-themed series approximately every six months, including new seasons of current shows. The service has already announced a second season of Daredevil and will debut Jessica Jones later this year.

--Sarandos called “unfortunate” and “unfair” the controversy surrounding the filming of the Sandler-produced original movie Ridiculous 6 in which several Native American extras walked off the set due to what they felt as culturally insensitive script writing.  

“I think when people see Ridiculous 6 they’ll see the show speaks for itself in terms of its treatment of American Indians.” he said.

Netflix said it is expanding the amount of Spanish-language programming available to U.S. subscribers beginning later this month.

Additionally, the streaming video provider will launch an original Spanish-language series — soccer dramedy Club de Cuervos — on August 7.

Netflix's growing roster of Hispanic titles includes series, telenovelas, comedies, documentaries, movies and kids shows, via expanded partnerships with networks including Univision, UniMas and Telemundo.

“Generations have loved shows like El Chavo, and we are confident that they will enjoy recent titles like La Dictadura Perfecta as well as the latest addition to our originals slate, Club de Cuervos,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Netflix will debut actor and comedian Chris Tucker’s first full length stand-up comedy special in July.

The special, Chris Tucker Live, will premiere on Netflix July 10, said network officials, and will feature the actor’s on-stage act as he discusses his experiences from childhood to Hollywood, said Netflix officials.

“Chris Tucker is a true global movie star and a one-of-a-kind talent whose remarkable energy, delivery and original style make him one of the funniest comedians of our time,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer. “We cannot wait to share his distinct and hilarious voice with our members across the globe.”

Pasadena, Calif. -- Netflix has no intentions of releasing viewing statistics for its original shows, which do not reflect the success or failure of its original programming, according to the OTT service’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

Sarandos, speaking at Netflix’s Television Critics Association press tour presentation here Wednesday morning, said that unlike cable and broadcast networks, Netflix has no business reasons to be measured or release audience numbers. The streaming service doesn’t have to rely on ratings to generate advertising or secure carriage deals with cable distributors, so Sarandos said there’s no need to provide audience information to justify its success.

He added that the television industry’s heavy emphasis on ratings has hurt the overall creative process.

“For us, primetime viewing is no more valuable than 3 a.m. viewing – we want our subscribers to watch on their time table,” he said. “While other network track live +3 or live +7, it has no impact on our business whatsoever. We’re going to stay away from it as long as we can.”

On Netflix’s decision not to stream The Interview: Sarandos would not directly comment on Netflix’s decision not to distribute Sony’s controversial movie The Interview, but noted that the movie’s digital performance – Sony has reported that the movie has drawn $31 million in digital sales  – bodes well for the future of digitally distributed movie programming.

“It’s been a great  example of what can happen with a big budget movie if you give people distribution choices,” Sarandos said. “You can create a lot of revenue.”

On the resurrection of canceled shows: Sarandos said the company will look at shows “opportunistically” adding that its decision to bring back A&E’s recently cancelled drama Longmire was based on adding new viewers to Netflix. Later this year, Netflix will stream the fourth season of the western drama, which A&E cancelled late last year after three seasons. 

“The show had a very loyal audience base … it will work great on Netflix,” he said.