Netflix Execs Tout Dominance To Top Reps, Deflect Talent Payment Questions At Presentation

deadline.com:

Heading into a Netflix presentation this morning, top Hollywood agents and managers were expecting to get clarity on the long-rumored plans by the streamer to change the way they pay talent.

Instead, they were treated to stats and general information about the size of Netflix’s global audience, what constitutes a hit, how the streamer supports breakouts and its impact on music, social media — and people’s lives.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, in his signature blunt style, spoke for everyone in the room when he got up toward the end and asked, only half-jokingly, “When are you going to talk about backend and how you are going to f*ck us?” Likely prepared for the question, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria would not give an answer, instead jokingly sending reps to her top TV executive, UCAN Scripted Series Head Peter Friedlander, adding that she was not going to address the issue today. (She opened the event with another joke, “Don’t believe everything you read in the press,” possibly referring to Deadline’s story about the expectation among agents and managers that the topic of compensation would be discussed given the fact that the gathering included top-level Hollywood agents and managers.) I hear Range Media Partners CEO Peter Micelli was among other reps who asked a business-related question but Bajaria, who gave the presentation alongside Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee and Olivia De Carlo, Director of Title Merchandising, did not engage. “It was a total waste of time,” one attendee said, a sentiment repeated by others, with one calling the event “a complete nothing-burger” and another arguing that there was nothing said on stage today that they already had not heard in general meetings with Netflix