Things are staying the same at Netflix — for better or for worse. On Thursday, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria flat-out denied reports that the streamer plans to change how it pays creators.
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“We are not changing our model,” Bajaria said on stage at Thursday’s Bloomberg Screentime event, saying that the press “really wants to write about this” (we do!) and that there have been “outright fabrications” (OK, we haven’t done that) about the streamer’s plans.
“Our model works great for talent. It works great for filmmakers. It’s worked well for us. We like the model. It’s worked for a long time,” she said. “So we are not changing our compensation model.”
Bajaria did say there are a few “bespoke deals” on a couple (literally two) films in which talent got the chance to take on some risk and share in the upside based on the film’s performance, but she denied that those deals are the signs of a bigger shift.
“It’s a very tiny thing that has blown up to this story of we’re changing our business model,” she said. “We’re not. And in TV, we’re not doing one of those deals.”
To back up, Netflix has forever paid a premium upfront to film directors and actors, who, without theaters, do not get the supplementary compensation tied to a film’s box-office performance. So when something blows up on Netflix, they don’t get the same upside payday they would if, say, it was “Barbie” exploding in theaters .
Apple reportedly discussed a similar shift . As Bloomberg reported, Apple execs pitched Apple TV+ creators on a model that would base payment on how many people sign up to the service to watch their program. Other metrics included how much time a user spends watching one’s content, as well as how much the show or movie costs relative to how many people actually watch it.
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Bloomberg also said that Netflix and Amazon were doing the same. As we all know, when it comes to streaming, if Netflix does something, so too goes the rest of the streaming industry .
The reports came to a head late last month when Netflix and Bajaria invited some of the industry’s top agents for a rundown on some of their future plans. A lot of the agents believed this was that meeting . Deadline reported that Endeavor chief Ari Emanuel even said at the meeting , “When are you going to talk about backend and how you are going to fuck us?”
But it wasn’t about that.
What the agents got instead — and what Bajaria said on Thursday — is that she wanted to give a “Netflix 101” crash course. She explained there are still people out there, even with Netflix as dominant as it is, who are stuck thinking about traditional linear television and have a narrow idea of the types of shows or movies Netflix is interested in.
She also pushed back on the idea that Netflix has a habit of saying it will never do something, like introduce ads , and then they do it anyway. She said it’s a feather in the cap of Netflix that the company is willing to publicly say it is open to change as the business does. Bajaria even quibbled with the idea that the press loves to use the phrase “data dump” when referring to Netflix releasing six months of viewership data all at once , after we all spent so long demanding the company more transparent. Stop trying to make “What We Watched” happen.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bajaria spoke about Netflix’s live ambitions, including the upcoming NFL games on Christmas Day , she dodged a question about “Knives Out 3” getting a wider theatrical release , she announced a new live John Mulaney talk show coming in 2025 , and she confirmed the renewal of “Nobody Wants This” for a second season .
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