When Ted Sarandos speaks, the entertainment industry listens, so when the Netflix co-CEO sat for a fireside chat with Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker at the WSJ Tech conference Tuesday, there would be no shortage of Hollywood observers ready to read Ted’s tea leaves.
Sarandos, however, didn’t give too much for them to chew on. The executive discussed Netflix’s approach to generative artificial intelligence, live sports and events, advertising, games, and other areas well covered by last week’s quarterly earnings report.
He also, however, was asked about the other big entertainment industry story of the week: Disney’s succession drama, with James Gorman taking on the role of chairman next year, with Bob Iger’s successor top of mind.
Would Sarandos take Gorman’s call if he reached out about the job? “It’s not even on my mind,” Sarandos said.
But would Netflix’s co-CEO model work at a company like Disney?
“It’s hard for me to recommend the program to another company where I don’t really understand their business, and in turn their business culture,” Sarandos said. “I understand their business pretty well, but not their business culture.”
“[Netflix founder Reed Hastings] told me he was going to create a company that was going to be around way after him, so succession was on his mind in 1999; and I think it was on his mind 10 years ago when he and I started more running the business together; And I think it was on his mind three, maybe five years ago when we officially named me co-CEO,” he continued. “I think in the evolution of Reed becoming our executive chair, we had the time to prove out the model that for this company, for Netflix, the co-CEO model, works uniquely well.”
More to come.
{Categories} _Category: Takes{/Categories}
{URL}https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ted-sarandos-netflix-ceo-wsj-tech-1236041394/{/URL}
{Author}Alex Weprin{/Author}
{Image}https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/GettyImages-2180149502.jpg?crop=0px%2C298px%2C5000px%2C2798px&resize=1440%2C810{/Image}
{Keywords}Business,Business News,Netflix{/Keywords}
{Source}POV{/Source}
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