--- title: Ted Sarandos Says Netflix ‘Saved Hollywood’ | TIME description: The TIME100 Summit closed out with a Ted talk—that is, a talk with Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix. When asked by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs whether Netflix has “destroyed Hollywood,” Sarandos, who is on TIME’s 2025 list of the world’s most influential people, argued that the streamer has actually “saved Hollywood.” canonical: https://time.com/video/XAKsQ9V1/ og:title: Ted Sarandos Says Netflix ‘Saved Hollywood’ og:description: The TIME100 Summit closed out with a Ted talk—that is, a talk with Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix. When asked by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs whether Netflix has “destroyed Hollywood,” Sarandos, who is on TIME’s 2025 list of the world’s most influential people, argued that the streamer has actually “saved Hollywood.” og:url: https://time.com/video/XAKsQ9V1/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XAKsQ9V1/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Sarandos Says Netflix ‘Saved Hollywood’ twitter:description: The TIME100 Summit closed out with a Ted talk—that is, a talk with Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix. When asked by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs whether Netflix has “destroyed Hollywood,” Sarandos, who is on TIME’s 2025 list of the world’s most influential people, argued that the streamer has actually “saved Hollywood.” twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XAKsQ9V1/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Entertainment # Ted Sarandos Says Netflix ‘Saved Hollywood’ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Ted Sarandos Says Netflix ‘Saved Hollywood’ [Watch (HLS stream): Ted Sarandos Says Netflix ‘Saved Hollywood’](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XAKsQ9V1.m3u8) (14:12)  _Published 2025-04-23. The TIME100 Summit closed out with a Ted talk—that is, a talk with Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix. When asked by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs whether Netflix has “destroyed Hollywood,” Sarandos, who is on TIME’s 2025 list of the world’s most influential people, argued that the streamer has actually “saved Hollywood.”_ --- Apr 24, 2025 12:20 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [LIVE: TIME100 Talks Most Influential Companies](/video/UIFgCIow/):29 ### LIVE: TIME100 Talks Most Influential Companies [TIME100 Talks Most Influential Companies | TIME100 Talks \(Full Event\)](/video/JZ7YdSD9/):34 ### TIME100 Talks Most Influential Companies | TIME100 Talks (Full Event) [TIME'S 30 Most Influential People On The Internet](/video/cuAGJfqf/) ### TIME'S 30 Most Influential People On The Internet --- ## Transcript Thank you for being here. Welcome back to the time 100. You were one of very few leaders who have been on this list multiple times, so congratulations. It's an honor. An honor. Um, but on that cheery note, things do not look so good in the entertainment industry. The box office is down. The LA film business is shaky. People are out of work. Your competitors market share is sinking, but Netflix business is thriving. Um. Have you destroyed Hollywood? No. We're saving Hollywood. You're saving Hollywood? Yeah. Look, what's the big difference of everything you just listed there is that Netflix is a very consumer focused company. We really do care that we deliver the programming to you in a way you want to watch it, that it's programming that you love and desire. So we don't let you know a lot of other outside forces get in the way of that. So an example, I think, is that you mentioned the box office being down just by way of example. What does that say? What is the consumer trying to tell us that they'd like to watch movies at home. Thank you. Uh, and the studios and the, and the theaters are, you know, duking it out over trying to preserve this 45 day window that is completely out of step with the consumer experience of just loving a movie. But you don't just work with consumers, you work with creators. And sometimes they want to put their films in movie theaters. Yeah. Daniel Craig wants Knives Out three in theaters. Greta Gerwig convince you to release her upcoming Narnia movie in theaters. When do you decide just to give in to someone? Uh, look, we have these bespoke releases basically, but for a movie to come out that we'll try to, you know, we have to do some qualification for the Oscars, so they have to run for a little bit. Um, it helps with the press cycle a little bit, because the press likes to talk about movies and theaters, too. Um, but, you know, I try to encourage them. Every director we work with to focus on the consumer, focus on the fans, make a movie that they love, and they will reward you. Um, and that's that. But in general, I also realize that we're in a period of transition. Uh, folks grew up thinking, I want to make movies on a gigantic screen and have strangers watch them and play for the in the theaters for two months and people cry and sold out shows. It just doesn't happen very much. It's outdated. It's outdated. So when someone gets up at the Oscars and says, we need to make movies for movie theaters, for the communal experience, that's just an outmoded idea. I believe it is an outmoded idea for most people, not for everybody. There's a there are people. If you're fortunate enough to live in Manhattan, and you can walk to a multiplex and see a movie, that's fantastic, most of the country cannot. You love movies. I do, and I love theaters. That's the irony. Does that bother you? No. It just it feels to me like if what would really bother me if people stopped making great movies? And I think if we get trapped behind this way of how people if we want people to watch them the way we want them to watch them versus how they want to watch them, then people won't be able to make movies anymore because there won't be a business for it. So like the Paris theater here in New York, it was. It's the last single screen theater in Manhattan. It was about to become a Walgreens, and we saved it. And we didn't save it. To save the theater business, we bought. We saved it to save the theater experience. Are Trump's economic policies good for Netflix? Um, it's all remains to be seen. It's. We're early. We're early days. I think, um, the not disproportionately good or bad. I think we are, interestingly, a global and local business. So our business, our primary spending on programming, on employees, on infrastructure is in the US. But we're an enormous producer of programming around the world. So $6 billion of programming in the in the UK. Um, we've got out we've got, uh, we just announced $1 billion of spending in Mexico. Uh, we just spent a billion, $1 million restoring the Cinematheque in Brazil. So we've got a very large influence on an impact on the local economy and local cultures around the world beyond the US as well. You said earlier today that the entertainment industry gets thrown under the bus in trade deals. Was that you aligning with the president's moves on tariffs? No. What I was saying is, is that in trade in trade deals pre pre Donald Trump the um we'll have a trade a. A free trade agreement with the country. And then that country then has a cultural exception for entertainment. Or they have a minimum investment obligation uniquely on entertainment. And what I was saying is it's often that the entertainment industry doesn't get treated like a real business. And that's one of the examples of it. We have a free trade agreement with Australia. Australia wants to instill a minimum investment obligation and some cultural exceptions on top of that deal, after the deal's already done. And the inclination of the administrations, all administrations is typically to say, okay, let that go. But we're a real industry. We contributed $125 billion to the US economy. It's in between 2020 and 2024. So it is we're a 140,000 production jobs were created in that period of time. It's a real industry and sometimes we need some protecting too. Do you think about you talk about being focused on the consumer. Do you think about the Trump voter as a consumer? Do you worry that Netflix is not creating enough programming to appeal to that audience? No. I think we make programming for all sensibilities. It's been a part of the success of the company as well. We try not to have a show that you would define as a Netflix show. We want it to be your favorite show, and our brand is really personalization. So, um, we have found is that the typical watcher will watch across six different genres all the time. So no one's watching kind of one thing just because they voted for one person or thought one one thought. Uh, people want to be entertained. And it's not it's not unusual for someone to like, uh, Bridgerton and Monday Night Raw wrestling. Sure. In fact, we just did a we just hosted a, uh, a brunch for for WWE in Las Vegas for Monday Night Raw. And we had a chamber group there playing chamber music from Bridgerton and a nice crossover moment. The world is fascinating. Yes it is. Yes it is. We are. We are interesting creatures. Is part of your interest in video podcasts, which you mentioned recently, an effort to put people like Joe Rogan on the platform. Uh, what it is, is I think there's this all kinds of new things that happen, like podcasting is becoming much more video forward, and people are watching podcasts on their television on all kinds of different apps on television. So and I think what's happened is it's accelerated the lines being blurred between what's a talk show and what's a podcast. Um, and so and people seem to really like them and enjoy them. And we're always looking for what is the media that people are looking for that we can bring value to. And video podcasting could be one of them on that. You're creating, um, an increasing amount of international content. Yeah. Um, and that you create and that you license looks like Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery are doing the opposite. Why are you choosing separate paths? Um, we started early on. We've always. I met Reed Hastings, the founder of the company, in 1999. He described Netflix almost exactly like it is right now. Um, now, not the original programming part, but the global part. And that the internet would mean that there wasn't any limitations of a cable wire or a satellite, you know, dimensions and that the internet would enable truly global distribution and Netflix would be a truly global company. So for us, we always looked at that and said, okay, well, we're about 5% of the world's population, and about 80% of what's getting watched around the world is from America. Is that is that natural? Is that just a taste thing, or are we good, better at this than everybody else? And then when you get into these markets, you understand that most of the watching is very local, hyper local actually. But sometimes the markets are small, so there's not enough production scale to tell great stories, even to their own in their own markets. So for us, we've been able to bring global scale to that, those operations, so that when a show really works and it uniquely only works when it's authentically local. So you can't reverse engineer a global anything from anywhere. But if you tell a really great local story, it will travel around the world. People will see something in it that's familiar to them that is very unintuitive on the surface. That Squid Game would be the most watched show in the world and the most watched show in Netflix history. A very Korean show, not the Korean. This is not compromised in any way for that to happen. What country outside the United States is the most important one for you? That's I mean, it's based on size of television market. So is there one you're going to prioritize that you're. No. We really we have teams around the world focused in those markets. And to them that is the most important market. Um, how many of you here subscribe to Netflix? There we go. Um, you stopped counting the number of subscribers. Thank you. Thank you. You stopped putting out subscription numbers? Yes. Um, if subscriber numbers are no longer the most important metric. Although by a show of hands, you're doing fine. Um, what is the most important number for you? Uh, engagement. Revenue. Profit. So basically, they all are tied to what we internally call the four CS. So basically, when we have a pretty complicated business. Uh, the technical deliverable of putting content around the world on the internet, on thousands of different devices, in homes, in places that have varying degrees of internet speed, all these things, it's very it's very technically difficult is very creatively difficult to serve taste in every culture, in every language. Um, and so when you're in a complicated world, you want to try to make things simple for the folks doing it. And for us, it was boiling it down to four CS and it was content first and foremost, which is to make the shows that people really love. Um, choosing which is in a world of thousands and thousands of choices, uh, how to find something becomes really valued. So the technology that goes into helping people find things, the recommendation engine, the merchandising that puts the most logical thing next to the most logical thing is really important. Um, conversation, which is kind of marketing and publicity and getting the world talking about the shows that they're watching, getting them so excited that they want to talk about it. Uh, and then the fourth is that we added later was Commerce, which was if you do all three of these, well, then the commerce part comes. You have to make sure you're priced accordingly. So, um, for me, it's like taking something very, very complex and boiling it down and putting the customer at the center of it. Part of the evolution. And by the way, that's back to what I was saying was an engagement revenue, profit. That all comes by pleasing people. You have to please and we're one click cancel by the way. So all of you, all these folks who raised their hand as soon as they were unhappy, they could have just clicked one time and been left. A new group that you're trying to please is advertisers. That's an evolution in your business. You've moved to be a player in the advertising space. When the economy is not good. We tend to worry about advertising. How concerned are you about advertising for your business this year and also for global media? Well, we are primarily a subscription revenue service, and our advertising basically enables us to offer a cheaper product for folks who may want that or folks who may need that. Um, for for the longest time, we counter positioned against advertising because it was an interesting way to come in against TV, which was if you don't like ads, we don't have ads. If you don't want to wait until next week for an episode, we drop all of our shows at once. So it was all a classic kind of counter position. We also always fancied ourselves a choice company, so giving consumers as much choice as they can. How and what they want to watch. And then we realized later that we were not giving this choice, which was if you want a lower price and you don't mind ads, then here's that option. So we opened that up. And I'd say, you know, but we will be, you know, for the long haul will be primarily a subscription revenue service. You've been at Netflix for 25 years. Yeah. That's too long to be at any one company. Are you bringing out the big check now or. Good night everybody. It's funny, we we we're doing very well at time, but we can't afford Ted. Um, but two places it could. So in your next job, would you rather run Saturday Night Live or Disney? Oh, Saturday Night Live, for sure. Okay, well, then who should replace Bob Iger? I have no idea. I have no idea. Um, famously, when streaming arrived at Netflix, you stopped inviting the DVD employees to meetings. Yeah, that was me. Apologies to them. Sorry. Um, what is the next team at Netflix that will not be invited to the meetings? You must know, I mean. Well, look, I'll tell you, though, to be honest with you, when we when we started this, we looked at the DVD as a bridge to streaming. Streaming was the internet was too expensive and too slow to deliver content at the time we started the business. And the cheapest, fastest way to move bits from one part of the country to another part of the country was to put them on a disc and mail them. So we always looked at that as a bridge so that at some day. Now, of course, it got so big and popular that we said when we started streaming, don't mess with the DVD business. It's all the profit and all the revenue. And then as soon as the streaming started to catch fire, we said that is holding us back from getting to the promised land, which was streaming. So don't don't worry about the DVD business. In fact, and you have to keep de-prioritizing to we got all the way to the point where we said the DVD employees can't come to the company meeting anymore. But that was seen in the beginning. From the beginning. There's nobody right now who's doing anything at Netflix that I see that right now. Okay, I trust you. Um, so the the the headline here that I'm hearing, um, that that Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon have competition when it comes to the next showrunner for SNL. Um. They could they will rest easy tonight. They will rest easy tonight. Okay. Um, we're last question. We're sitting in a building that was once called the Time Warner Center. In 2010, Jeff Bewkes, the CEO of Time Warner, dismissed the possible dominance of Netflix, saying, it's a bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? What would you say to Jeff Bewkes today? I would say in Albanian if I could. Um. But if Jeff knew what a motivator that that comment was, he wouldn't have said it. Right. But the very first meeting after that, we all we had berets and dog tags and we were the Albanian army. Well, we know how that story ended. Ted Sarandos, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. 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