How Netflix turned from chasing HBO to signing a deal with WWE

May 27, 2024 09:32 PM - 5 months ago 48586

Netflix isn’t conscionable programming contented only a mini group of group would for illustration — it’s intent connected having a small thing for everyone. During an question and reply pinch The New York Times, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says he regrets comparing Netflix to HBO and its much constricted action of contented successful nan past.

His dream project: a Netflix bid created by Warren Beatty. “He’s awesome successful agelong form,” Sarandos says. “His only problems person been erstwhile he’s constrained.” Sarandos is besides warming up Jodie Foster, who directed an section of Orange Is nan New Black. “The goal,” he says, “is to go HBO faster than HBO tin go us.” His seductive transportation to today’s caller breed of TV auteurs: a immense audience, existent money, nary meddlesome ecutives (“I’m not going to springiness David Fincher notes”), nary pilots (television’s awesome sucking spread of money and hope), and a full-season commitment.

He tells nan NYT interviewer, “What I should person said backmost past is, We want to beryllium HBO and CBS and BBC and each those different networks astir nan world that entertain people, and not constrictive it to conscionable HBO.” He adds that “prestige elite programming” is simply a “very small” business, which isn’t what Netflix is astir anymore.

Instead, Sarandos explains that Netflix must person a "broad assortment of things that group watch and love.” That’s why not everything nan work offers whitethorn not entreaty to your taste. “The group who emotion ‘Ginny & Georgia’ will show you, ‘Ginny & Georgia’ is great,” Sarandos says.

As my colleague Alex Cranz pointed out earlier this year, Netflix’s programming strategy makes it much for illustration cablegram TV, arsenic nan work now has everything from Young Sheldon to The 100 — and soon, WWE’s Monday Night Raw.

Netflix is still eyeing nan title from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Comcast. “Early on, we were discounted because I deliberation nan studios thought these tech guys are ne'er going to fig retired programming,” Sarandos tells nan NYT. “We mostly person proved them wrong. And I deliberation it would beryllium crazy for america to think, Well, these intermezo companies are ne'er going to fig retired nan tech.”

Netflix has undergone a large transformation complete nan past fewer years, pushing up pinch immoderate of nan things it said it’d ne'er do, including advertizing and paid password sharing. As nan streaming scenery shifts attraction to revenue alternatively than subscriber numbers, we could spot different streamers travel a akin path.

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