Ted Sarandos Talks Disney Succession, Gen AI and Live Events Push
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.
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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.”
Sarandos also reiterated that when it comes to the company acquiring more live sports: “Never say never, but I would say that right now we are in the live events business,” he said. “There’s something very interesting and very exciting about when the world comes together to watch the same thing at the same time. They don’t do it very often. That’s what makes it so special.”
“I think the leagues do a phenomenal job of building fandom, and for that, they get to keep all the money, and distribution’s a pretty low margin business for full season league sports, I do think if we can add some value back to them, which I think we do uniquely, we can make that work,” he added.
And when it comes to using generative AI, Sarandos said that he expects the tech to have a “profound impact” on the product, he was less certain about its influence on content.
“I think the internet will be moved by that Gen AI to help things that are already working work better,” he said. “So I think that includes choosing and merchandising and UI creation.”
“I look at Gen AI as a tool for creators to create content, not for Netflix to create instead of creators,” he said. “So I feel like there are opportunities if it passes the big test, which is, can the use of this tool make a better show, then it will be really transformative and be helpful. But if it doesn’t, I think it’s going to be part of somewhere in the hype cycle of what it is right now.”
And while Netflix is also in the advertising business, the gaming business, and the live experiences business, Sarandos said that one area that it does not expect to compete is in the user-generated content business, where YouTube and TikTok dominate.
“In some ways, it’s going to be a training ground for storytellers and creators, which is great. In other ways, it’s a way that people kill time,” he said. “I do think killing time and spending time are two different activities, and you can be careful not to get too distracted by chasing everything that people are doing. I think that a lot of what’s happening on social media and through user generated is interesting and exciting.
“I look at the monetization model, it isn’t possible to do something at the scope and scale that we do on Netflix through that model, this doesn’t monetize well enough to do that, and the creators have got to put up all their own money to do that,” he added. “So I think it’s the model itself is self limiting what the content can be. We’re in two different arenas in terms of programming in that way, but it is a way that people spend time on TV. So I do pay attention to it, of course.”
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