Netflix doesn’t want Hollywood writers to go on strike — but the streamer has a “pretty robust slate of releases” that will help it weather a walkout better than others, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said.
His comments, on the company’s first quarter 2023 earnings interview, come a day after Writers Guild of America members overwhelmingly passed a strike authorization vote, giving union leadership the power to call a strike once the contract expires on May 1.
“We respect the writers, and we respect the WGA,” he said. “We couldn’t be here without them. We don’t want a strike. The last time there was a strike, it was devastating to creators. It was really hard on the industry. It was painful for local economies that support productions. And it was very, very, very bad for fans.”
Sarandos said “we want to work really hard to make sure we can find a fair and equitable deal so we can avoid one.” That said, “if there is one, we have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world that we could probably serve our members better than most… We do have a pretty robust slate that could take into a long time.”
Sarandos commented that the rate of growth in Netflix’s content spending is contingent on revenue growth. The company is still working through post-COVID “floodgates” opening, which makes content spending “lumpier,” Sarandos said.
Over the course of 2022-24, Netflix will average around $17 billion in annual cash spending on content, CFO Spence Neumann, and then after that “there’s a big entertainment market to go after beyond that.”
“As we reaccelerate revenue [growth], we see a lot of opportunity to grow into that viewing and engagement and business opportunity ahead,” Neumann said.