Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos Estimates 2024 Content Spending Level, Weighs In On Film Strategy As Streaming Rivals Embrace Theatrical

deadline.com:

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company will likely spend roughly $17 billion on content in 2024, steady with 2023 levels.

The level of spending, which had shocked the rest of the entertainment industry as it grew sharply during Netflix’s rise, has flattened as the company has reassessed its operations.

Along with staff reductions, the company has embarked on revenue-generating initiatives like advertising and charging subscribers fees for sharing passwords and exercising more discipline on spending. “The rate of growth depends on the rate of revenue growth, for sure,” Sarandos said during the company’s first-quarter earnings interview. “We said we’d stay at roughly $17 billion on average in the 2022 to 2024 period,” CFO Spence Neumann reminded interviewer Jessica Reif Ehrlich, a media analyst with Bank of America. “But there’s a big entertainment market to go after beyond that, so as we reaccelerate revenue, we see a lot of opportunity to grow into that viewing and engagement and business opportunity.” Sarandos was asked about whether the company will change its film strategy and reconsider its stance on theatrical, with Reif Ehrlich noting recent staff cuts in the film division.

Aside from some experiments with broader rollouts, Netflix generally puts films into smaller circuits for a few weeks at most before debuting them on streaming. “No, Jessica, the film division is doing great,” Sarandos responded.