Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, met with Donald Trump in December at the then-President-elect’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida. But according to Sarandos, the two didn’t “talk shop.”
The Netflix boss, speaking Friday at the Paley Media Council event “Beyond the Stream: A Conversation with Ted Sarandos” in New York City, said it was the first time he met Trump. “We had a nice long dinner together,” he said.
Asked by interviewer Ben Smith, editor in chief of Semafor, whether Trump tried to sell Sarandos on the documentary featuring his third wife, Melania — the rights to which were acquired by Amazon — Sarandos said, no, Trump did not. Is Trump a fan of Netflix? “He said Melania and [son] Barron were big fans,” Sarandos said.
Meanwhile, Smith continued, did Amazon “overpay” for the Melania doc? (Amazon is reportedly shelling out $40 million for the film and docu-series about the First Lady.) Sarandos said he didn’t know. “I haven’t seen it,” the Netflix chief said.
The conversation with Sarandos came a day after the exit of Amazon MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke. Smith asked the Netflix exec “what’s going wrong” at Amazon. Sarandos responded, “I really don’t pay that much attention to them.” He added, “I don’t mean to be pejorative or snotty about it” — according to Sarandos, he’s too busy with everything going on at Netflix to closely follow rivals. He said he tells his team, “If you are looking over your shoulder [at a competitor] you’re going to trip.”
Asked whether Netflix is shifting its content strategy with Trump’s second term, Sarandos said it is not: “We’ll program exactly the same.” Regarding “The Apprentice,” the movie about Trump’s early years as a real estate tycoon in New York that many distributors passed on, Sarandos said, “I thought it was a good movie, but there are 10,000 movies submitted to Sundance every year.” The decision about whether to acquire a project, he said, is “really cost relative to audience.”
At another point in the discussion, Sarandos said he continues to stand by his decision to work with comedian Dave Chappelle, who was criticized for his anti-trans comments in his Netflix stand-up special “The Closer” — a controversy that included a walkout by the company’s own employees. He also defended Netflix’s decision to order three specials from Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian whose poorly received joke about Puerto Ricans at Trump rally last fall ignited a media firestorm.
“There are never easy calls. But it’s rooted in principles of free speech and free expression,” Sarandos said.
He compared Chappelle to boundary-pushing comedians Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Richard Pryor. “He’s clearly in that class… the best who have ever done this job,” Sarandos said. “There’s no denying he’s one of the greatest comedians of our time.”
According to Sarandos, stand-up comedians need “a safe place to try things out” and said it’s an “art form that is defined by the audience.” Said the exec: “You can’t say, ‘That’s not funny’ if 18,000 people laugh at it. You can say it offends you, it hurts you, but you can’t say it’s not funny.”
Sarandos has worked at Netflix for 25 years — in fact, he noted that the anniversary date of his joining the company was March 27.
During the wide-ranging convo, Sarandos covered familiar ground. He repeated that Netflix isn’t interested in full-season sports rights — but he’s bullish on special events like the NFL Christmas Day games that streamed worldwide — and reiterated that he doesn’t want to be Disney CEO. Sarandos also spoke about Netflix’s transition from DVD to streaming, recalling that at one point top executives stopped inviting the DVD team to company meetings.
In addition, Sarandos said that he if had to do it over again, he would do a deal for the film “Emilia Pérez,” whose star, Karla Sofía Gascón, drew fire over her past racist and offensive tweets. He called the film “visually stunning” and “daring” — “all the things you want a movie to be.”
Netflix is at the top of its game these days. For Q4 of 2024, Netflix turned in boffo results, resulting in several Wall Street analyst upgrades on the stock and leading one to opine, “This is what winning looks like.”
The company gained 18.9 million net new global subscribers, around double analyst expectations, to reach 301.6 million. It also announced price hikes in the U.S. and other key markets, including on its ad-supported entry-level tier, demonstrating its pricing power. Netflix raised its 2025 outlook for revenue to be between $43.5 billion and $44.5 billion (up $500 million from its prior forecast) and targeted an operating margin of 29%, up one percentage point from the prior forecast.
From Variety US