After weeks of media speculation that Netflix is looking to change the way that it pays talent in film and TV, chief content officer Bela Bajaria said that’s not the case. Speaking on Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime conference, Bajaria pointed to recent stories about Netflix’s plans to unveil a new compensation structure “total fabrications.”
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“We like our model, and we like our model in film and TV,” Bajaria said. “On the film side, even, which a lot has been written about, we are not changing our model. 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. So we are not changing our compensation model.”
Bajaria said there have been “a few bespoke deals” with talent on a handful of films in which talent “was interested in the opportunity of, we’ll take some risk, we’re going to share more upside, and they were interested in that.”
But Bajaria said that’s only happened twice. “It’s a very tiny thing that has blown up to this story of we’re changing our business. We’re not,” she said. “On TV, we have not done one of those deals. So that’s just not true.”
When it was pointed out that Netflix has previously said it wouldn’t change its model and then did (including getting into the advertising business), Bajaria did admit that Netflix has changed as the business evolves. “We understand the business and we change,” she said. “We’re willing to pivot and grow and evolve and innovate, instead of saying, ‘This has always the way it’s been done, and we can never change it…. The business has changed. So we’re gonna we’re gonna change. Maybe that’s the reason everybody wants to write stories that are not accurate. I just think there’s no story there.”
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Bajaria was referring to reports in other publications that a recent Netflix meeting with top talent representatives would unveil some sort of new structure. In reality, it was a “Netflix 101” gathering to point out to reps where the streamer stands as a pure play business only making film, TV and games. It was a “‘here’s a peek behind the curtain,'” she said. “‘We’re partners with you, and we want to make sure that we share this information and kind of set the table of what we’re trying to do, and our aspiration to make amazing film and TV all around the world.'”
Asked about Netflix’s committment to movies, particularly as it shifts more dollars to live events like the NFL, Bajaria said that she believed “looking at like cost in that way is sort of the wrong way to look at the business. I really look at it as, we know people love movies, and so we should make lots of movies… We’re a subscription business, and our members love movies, and our members want to watch great movies at home in their living rooms.”
There’s also the issue of Netflix viewing being flat the first half of the year according to its most recent data release. Bajaria attributed that to having a lighter output on the service following the Hollywood strikes. “That sort of impacted some of the stuff we had on in the US, especially,” she said. But Bajaria said she expected that trend to change in the second half of the year, thanks to its huge hits in the recent returns of “Bridgerton” and “Emily in Paris,” as wekk as “Perfect Couple,” “Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story” and “Nobody Wants This.”
And then next up is the long-awaited Season 2 of “Squid Game.” “Director Hwang is an amazing writer/director, and it’s such an interesting way that he can talk about class and money,” she said. “It has that great iconography and amazing, surprising games, new games that you’ve not seen before. There’s just such great character storytelling in there, and he has great surprises, just like the first season. It totally delivers on what people would hope that it would be.”
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