Netflix announcements tend to be slightly controversial, which is probably to be expected, given that the streamer boasts over 180 million subscriber accounts and counting. You can’t please everyone, and remember when the “speed up” feature was originally floated? Boy, some folks were not happy, but Netflix probably won’t find any opposition to a new revelation from CEO Reed Hastings in a Variety interview.
According to Hastings, Netflix has resolved to rely upon their subscription-focused strategy instead of introducing ads (like Hulu has done with a tiered pricing format). This news follows a little over two years since Netflix reportedly tested ads between episodes, and I guess those tests didn’t go well. Yet Hastings believes that they simply don’t want to fix what’s not broken. Also, Hastings said, “It’s hand-to-hand combat to get people to spend less on, you know, ABC and to spend more on Netflix.”
The CEO also made a rather amazing claim about 2021 Netflix original content, which does not appear have been upended (on a massive scale, anyway) by the pandemic:
Next year, we’ve planned out the year — we’ve got a great selection of content. It’s still more originals than this year. It’s not up by as much as we first forecast, but it is up on a year-over-year basis. Of course in Europe we’re producing, in Asia we’re producing. We’re all hopeful for a vaccine, so we can get back to more intensive work..
It sounds like several shows, like The Witcher, may have been pushed back a few months due to stopping production earlier this year, but Henry Cavill and company are back to work in Europe, unflattering photos and all. As for office-related matters, Hastings spoke with the Wall Street Journal and expressed his distaste for working at home. He plans to get the Netflix staff back into buildings as soon as it’s feasible. As he initially (and jokingly) said, it’ll happen “12 hours after a vaccine is approved.” In reality, Reed’s thinking it’ll happen “probably six months after a vaccine… once we can get a majority of people vaccinated.”
(Via Variety & Wall Street Journal)