After ‘Suits’ Soared on Netflix, Expect “a Bunch of Lawyer Shows” From Rivals, Ted Sarandos Says
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Ted Sarandos has welcomed a resolution to the actors strike to allow his streamer, and Hollywood, to get back to work.
“We’re mostly just thrilled the strike is behind us, and getting back to what we do best and what our writers and actors do best and all of our below-the-line folks, which is make great stories for the world,” the Netflix co-CEO told the UBS Global Media and Communication Conference during a session that was webcast on Monday.
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Sarandos reiterated Netflix would spend around $17 billion on programming content in 2024 post-Hollywood strikes, as long as that content spend matched the company’s expansion. “You just have to stay closely aligned to that growth. We think that $17 billion level aligns with our growth. If we surpass that and if we accelerate on that, we’ll revisit that as well,” he argued.
That content spend will include more investment in local-language unscripted and feature animation. And on a restarted TV production front, Sarandos also predicted a slew of TV legal dramas to reach viewers in 2024 after Suits had its moment in the streaming world on his platform. “I would argue next year you’ll probably see a bunch of lawyer shows,” he told the investors conference.
Suits, an NBCUniversal show, found new life on Netflix, as the service cemented its reputation for offering classic TV shows and movies as part of its streaming TV offering. Sarandos argued his subscriber base discovering TV shows long after they aired on broadcast TV networks adds value to library licensing deals for original IP, often followed by new incarnations of marquee franchises.
“Sony is making a movie of Cobra Kai. Why are they doing that? Because Cobra Kai was a monster on Netflix,” Sarandos said. A continuation of the Karate Kid movie franchise — with original stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reprising their roles — Cobra Kai began as a YouTube series during the platform’s relatively brief foray into longer-form scripted programming.
After two seasons at YouTube, it moved to Netflix in 2020. Sarandos added Hollywood studios licensing library series to Netflix, rather than hoarding them for their own upstart streaming platforms, reflects the origins of the TV business.
“They (studios) always built their studios to license. The unnatural state was kind of forced vertical integration. So there will be opportunities for us to license,” Sarandos told investors. The same should take place on the movie front, where Netflix is moving beyond producing its own original films like Maestro and May, December for its own content vault to licensing more titles from others.
“We ramped up at that kind of aggressive pace as we’ve only being doing original films for five years. So over the last couple of years the availability to license has opened up a lot more than it was in the past, including we have those pay one deals with Sony and with Universal,” Sarandos said.
He also hinted at far more live event programming at Netflix after success with its first-ever live, global streaming event with the stand-up special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, which included live pre- and post-shows.
“What we’re trying to do with live … the key is let’s focus where live is the creative part of it. If it’s better because it’s live, let’s do it live,” he argued.
Sarandos added the live Chris Rock stand-up special had a bigger viewership than the comedy superstar’s earlier comedy shows on Netflix, and the coverage of the live event was far broader. “Now people were waiting a year to hear Chris give us what happened at the Oscars, and he was incredibly disciplined not telling it elsewhere until the special came on. But it created a real live event,” he recounted.
He also gave an update on Netflix’s password sharing crackdown, which is deliberately being rolled out slowly across global markets, with Sarandos adding the pacing was about right. The streamer began cracking down on users who share their Netflix password in the U.S. in May 2023 after launching the program in several countries around the world in early February.
The Netflix boss also told the investors conference that the streaming giant had to balance consistency with adapting to a changed entertainment landscape to ensure long-term success. “Streaming is a good business. It’s just a hard one,” he said.
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