Reed Hastings Opens Rome’s Netflix Office as Rain Gods Spare Everyone But Him

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentReed Hastings made the trek to Rome to open Netflix’s new Italian headquarters in an elegant building just off the Via Veneto of “La Dolce Vita” fame — and the Roman rain gods made sure they knew he was there.Menacing dark clouds interspersed with flashes of sunlight had hovered over the hour-long outdoor presentation of a rich slate of Netflix Italian originals, headlined by a high-end series adaptation of classic Italian novel “The Leopard.” Yet the weather had somehow held up.Right until, that is, a minute after Hastings took the stage.“To start [in Italy] with this facility, with all the creators that we have today, is such an honor, especially as I feel the first drop of rain,” said Netflix’s founder and co-CEO.

As it gradually began to pour, Hastings reminisced about the fact that 20 years ago, when his wife and children moved to Rome while he remained in the U.S.

running what was then a DVD mail-out business, he would come and visit them.“At the end of that year, we had so many great memories,” he said, as umbrellas were handed out to guests. “And then 15 years ago [Netflix co-CEO] Ted Sarandos came here on holiday and he called me and said: ‘Enough with the DVDs, we’ve got to get into streaming,'” Hastings added.“We talked then about building up our Italian membership because, some day, we would be producing content here in Italy.”Hastings revealed that the Rome office launch was effectively a celebration of the country’s almost 5 million subscribers.“The dream of Netflix is to support content creation everywhere and share it all around the world.