As rivals toggle between schadenfreude and fear, top creators and insiders are increasingly becoming vocal about what’s gone wrong with the streaming giant’s culture.
Now those studios get to feel a little sexy again, as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made clear in an April 26 earnings call when he noted that he heads “a far more balanced and competitive company.” Says a key executive at a big media company: “Cable networks may be on the decline, but they still generate a lot of revenue. … Maybe try keeping the lights on. Maybe don’t kill theatrical so fast.
Still, whether Netflix’s rough ride is truly a measure of the limits on subscriber growth is not clear, whatever Wall Street thinks. At a time of war in Europe and rising inflation, it may be a little soon to write an obituary. Netflix has gotten itself out of tight spots before. According to a former insider, Netflix knew years ago that it would have to increase its volume of original shows substantially year-over-year to compete. The service could foresee the time when popular shows on the service, like, would be reclaimed by the studios that made them as they launched their own streaming services.
The demand for ever more volume did not abate. Bajaria, who also had responsibility for licensing TV and film content from major U.S. studios, quickly moved into Holland’s scripted television domain. In 2017, she gave a 13-episode order to, a dark, hourlong comedy pilot that had been rejected by The CW. Holland’s team had passed on it. One prominent Netflix supplier calls Bajaria’s decision “the beginning of the Walmart-ization” of the streamer.
As Holland expressed unhappiness with the broader strategy, an insider says the response was that things would work out fine if maybe one in 10 shows worked. “This is one of the things that Cindy and Ted disagreed on for a while,” this person says. “She was the one person who would push back on him.” Frustrated, sources say Holland turned to Netflix founder Reed Hastings. This source says Holland also objected to Sarandos’ expensive campaigns for the Oscars: “Cindy said, ‘You’re losing the town.
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