Streamers’ Increasing Flexibility Creating More Opportunities for Distributors, Zurich Summit Panelists Report
variety.comEd Meza @edmezavar The changing global strategies of streamers and their impact on the independent film sector were front and center for international industry reps at the Zurich Summit on Saturday.
Sasha Bühler, Netflix’s director of film for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Patrick Wachsberger, Black Bear president John Friedberg, John Lesher, Neon CEO Tom Quinn, Focus Features’ Kiska Higgs and CAA’s Roeg Sutherland were among the participants taking deep dives into major issues facing the global entertainment market.
Commenting on changing investment strategies at Netflix, Bühler stated, “We’re available in over 190 countries and we have 238 million subscribers, very diverse, around the world, and we actively produce in 50 countries, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and there are territories that are more saturated than others.” There are definite growth markets for Netflix and the company has not slowed down its investments at all, she added.
What the company is doing, however, is becoming “more deliberate in what we produce,” she added. “We haven’t been producing films that long. … We’ve learned a lot about what our members want and our member base grows continually.
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