Netflix Establishes $100 Million Coronavirus Relief Fund

Denise Petski
·3 min read

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix is giving back to the creative community as the entertainment industry reels from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. In a company blog post Friday, Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, said the streamer has established a $100 million fund to help those workers hardest-hit in the television and film industry by the outbreak.

Most of the funds will go toward hardest-hit workers on Netflix’s own productions around the world, Sarandos said, the logistics of which are being worked out, production by production. The company had already committed to paying workers two weeks pay following the production suspensions last week.

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Sarandos said $15 million will go to third parties and non-profits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where the company has a large production base.

In the U.S. and Canada, Netflix will donate $1 million each to non-profits the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the US, and $1 million between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes. The company will be working with existing industry organizations in other regions, including Europe, Latin America and Asia where Netflix has a big production presence, to create similar creative community emergency relief efforts. Details will be shared next week.

You can read the entire blog post in full below.

The Covid-19 crisis is devastating for many industries, including the creative community. Almost all television and film production has now ceased globally – leaving hundreds of thousands of crew and cast without jobs. These include electricians, carpenters and drivers, many of whom are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis.

This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide. So we’ve created a $100 million fund to help with hardship in the creative community.

Most of the fund will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on our own productions around the world. We’re in the process of working out exactly what this means, production by production. This is in addition to the two weeks pay we’ve already committed to the crew and cast on productions we were forced to suspend last week.

Beyond helping workers on our own productions, we also want to support the broader film and television industry. So $15 million of the fund will go to third parties and non-profits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base.

In the United States and Canada non-profits already exist to do this work. We will be donating $1 million each to the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the US, and $1 million between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes. In other regions, including Europe, Latin America and Asia where we have a big production presence, we are working with existing industry organizations to create similar creative community emergency relief efforts. We will announce the details of donations to groups in other countries next week.

What’s happening is unprecedented. We are only as strong as the people we work with and Netflix is fortunate to be able to help those hardest hit in our industry through this challenging time.

Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer

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