Ted Sarandos, who is behind Netflix’s content efforts, has been made CEO replacing the current CEO Reed Hastings.,
Ted Sarandos will remain the chief content officer, and he is also joining the board’s director. Meanwhile, the Chief Product Officer, Greg Peters, will become the Chief Operating Officer.
In a recent blog post, Hastings stated that he didn’t expect this to change the daily operations of the company. In fact, he stated that this promotion is nothing out of the ordinary.
Hastings remembered meeting Sarandos around 20 years ago, and he gave him credit for the success of the company.
“While I oversaw the steaming, Ted drove for revolution in our content strategy. It was ahead of its time and became the main reason for the company’s success. It was typical of him to see where the tastes of the consumers were heading. He has made an amazing team and attracted entertainment executives from around the world.”
In the same post, Sarandos stated that he would keep pushing the boundaries of what a consumer-first company can achieve for people who love stories.
This announcement was timed with the company’s second-quarter earnings release, in which it added around 9 million net memberships during the past quarter, which grew to 193 million paid memberships in total.
The company has had amazing growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. It added around 16 million new subscribers during the first quarter, which means around 26 million net additions during the first quarter, which led to 26 million net additions during the first half of 2020.
However, Netflix remained cautious throughout the year and stated that it would add 2.5 million subscribers in the Q3, which is leading to a 10% decrease in the Netflix shares.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has also forced the company to slow down its production. However, you might not be aware of it because of the continuous launch of new TV shows and movies. Yet now the company is resuming the production in other parts of the world. The company stated that its 2020 schedule is still intact.
Netflix issued a statement in which it said, “For the year 2021, we expect that the productions will lead to a more weighed content in terms of our titles. However, the total number will be higher than in 2020.”
