WEBVTT - Ted Sarandos on Netflix’s Five Years of Global Growth, Controversy Over ‘Cuties’ and Management Changes 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.679 Strictly Business is brought to you in part by City 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.600 National Bank, the bank who makes it their business to 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.240 be personal. A City National relationship manager can anticipate the 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.520 financial needs that make the entertainment and tech industries tick. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.280 That's because they've been doing it for more than sixty 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:20.680 five years. Need to figure out day to day finances done. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:27.640 Someone that understands intellectual property, licensing and royalties absolutely. City 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.280 National understands the industry because they were born in it. 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.800 Visit c NB dot com and get started. City National 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:49.400 Bank member f d I C. Welcome to Strictly Business, 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.440 Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.560 business of media and entertainment. I'm Cynthia Littleton, business editor 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.520 for Variety Today. My guest is Ted's Surrandos, co CEO 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.240 and Chief Content Officer for Netflix. Surrandos has a view 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.480 of the global entertainment industry like no other because no 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.160 other entertainment company has ever had the global reach and 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.880 local presence that Netflix has. In our wide ranging interview, 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.759 Surrandos talks about what they've learned from their aggressive global 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.959 push over the past five years and how it's changed 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.640 the way Netflix views the overall content business. He also 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:32.000 talks about navigating coronavirus curveballs, the controversy over the French 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.640 arthouse film Cutis, and why he recently made a big 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.520 change in Netflix's senior management ranks. The interview was held 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.120 in conjunction with the presentation of the Vanguard Award to 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.120 Surrandos and Netflix from Variety and the mip COM Global 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:53.320 Content Conference. Welcome everyone, Thank you for joining us what 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.760 for what is sure to be a lively conversation about 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.880 the global entertainment business with none other than Ted Surrando's 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:06.440 Chief Content Officer and co CEO of Netflix. I'm Cynthia Littleton, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:11.760 business editor for Variety and on behalf of Variety and Midcom. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:17.640 We are very pleased to award varieties Vanguard Award for 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:23.079 achievement and Impact in the global Television Business to Ted 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.079 Surrandos and Netflix. Thank you very much, Thanks so much 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.200 for joining us. Ted. In this virtual format, we would 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:34.440 otherwise be on the croissette, but we we can have 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.799 a toast in future years. Absolutely. If you know, if 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.919 France would have us, we would have come, but I 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.400 would I would not mind being on the coast of 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.880 France right now. I hear you, I hear you. So 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.600 thank you very much obviously to Variety and everyone at 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.079 MIPCOM for this great honor and UH for the for 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.000 the jetting me this morning. Oh you're welcome. So I 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.280 thought we would start kind of where it began for 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.520 you on the on the in the global arena. Um. 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.360 It's hard to believe, but it's coming up on five years. 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.280 January seven, two thousand and sixteen, you were at the 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.919 c E S conference in Las Vegas and you very 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.880 dramatically flipped the switch and took Netflix into more than 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.440 a hundred and thirty countries on one day. I think 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.320 that one move was one of the things that really 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.919 I think galvanized Hollywood's attention and I think the global 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.040 entertainment industry kind of looked and thought, woa, this is 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.760 a different kind of company. When you were making that 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:39.520 move almost five years ago, did you know did did 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.000 you have a sense of what a profound impact that 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.160 going global in that degree, you know, expanding that that 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.640 to that many territories that quickly in one field swoop. 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:51.520 Did you know what kind of an impact that would 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.880 have on your business? Well, you know, the company was 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.200 an Internet company, even though we were only mailing DVDs 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.920 around the US to start with. The the the ability 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.640 to be a global company at the Global Entertainment Company 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.360 was uniquely enabled by the Internet. UH. The way that 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.200 being a A to Z DVD rental company UH was 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.320 owned was uniquely enabled by the Internet back in the 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.400 beginning of Netflix. But I think that we've always thought 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.239 that there was an interesting lack of equilibrium in the 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.480 storytelling arena where the US represented such a small percentage 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.719 of the world population and such a large percent of 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.039 total watching of content around the world. So you knew, 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:33.919 we knew that there were great storytellers, We knew that 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.360 there was great content coming from all over the world, 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.760 but the existing distribution models made it pretty difficult for 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.640 anything but domestic content to travel internationally. UM. But so 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.599 we looked at it earlier, which was like, what the 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.240 more time we spent in more countries, the more you 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.440 got to understand about the local appetites and local culture, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:57.359 local history, local storytelling, local production ecosystems, and realized there 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.159 was an enormous opportunity for underserved audiences who've been pretty 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.880 dramatically underserved up to that point for us to be 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.280 able to be um as meaningful to a customer in 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.680 India as we are in Indiana. That was kind of 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.360 the way we thought about it back five years ago. 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.800 M hmm. Were was did you have nerves at that time? 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:18.839 It's kind of like, you know, you turned the lights on, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.720 did you have any worries that you wouldn't get meaningful 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.320 numbers of subscribers? Uh, you know, at the time, it 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.040 was really uh that that that that literally flipped the 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.400 switch go live a hundred and thirty countries. It was 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.640 at that time. It wasn't like we were specializing in 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.680 any of them. You know, we had a couple, we 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.120 had some international territories launched ahead of that, but these 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.279 hundred and thirty countries were basically just entering for the 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.440 first time with the Netflix product as it was offered 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.280 to most people in the world. Uh, localized in many 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.440 countries and money languages, but at the time we didn't 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.159 have local payment options in many cases, or local subtitles 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.040 and dubs in some cases. So and those that early 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.719 early past, it was very much a hey, if you're 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.160 like Western content and up international credit card, uh, and 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.840 you've heard about Netflix, now you can watch it. Uh. 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.280 And then we just then just started more surgically looking 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:12.080 country by country, territory by territory uh at doing everything 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.480 from localizing the content that we had UH, to localizing 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:19.200 the payment methodologies UH and also to uh in many 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.239 cases producing original content and local language in those countries. 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.920 Was there anyone market or region that really fired up 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.479 your appetite for local language production to to really go 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.479 for it in that on that scale. Well, our first 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.920 time out was um you know we did in Mexican 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.520 Mexico when we made um Um Club the Cuervos, we 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.400 had an opportunity to look at say, well, that's the 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.080 show that not only worked really well in Mexico, but 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.280 it pretty much serves the Spanish speaking world. Uh. So 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.680 you really understand that you've got some opportunity to build 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.240 scale in some places in the world and other stories 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.560 and other places where like Japan, which was, you know, 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.800 such a huge media market and it's almost exclusively jepp 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.400 Upanese content in Japan. Uh. His history, history, taste, culture, 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.440 all those things that steer that population to mostly enjoy 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.360 the Japanese content. So you have these challenges of saying, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.160 how do you you know, one hand, you can take 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.880 a stranger things that's almost totally global. But prior to that, 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.360 we didn't have a lot of experience with um, non 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.760 English language shows being very global. Uh. And then you 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.120 know Fastival, you know launched. Uh. We have a new 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.320 season of the Custody Papela just came out this year. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.680 And you think at that show, and that show is 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.000 enormous globally, Uh. And the Spanish language and it's film, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.200 you know, it's in a show from Spain. Uh. So 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:40.040 you have the opportunity to produce at scale in local languages. Uh. 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.360 It's an incredible It's incredible when you get it right. UM. 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:45.360 And I do think and that is you know, trusting 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.920 the storytellers in the region, giving them a big platform 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.120 and the opportunity to talk to the world in some 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:55.800 in some cases for the first time. And and of 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.200 course in this in this new on demand format which 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.480 is in an of itself, is so it is revolutionary 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.679 for markets where you know, the the overall the notion 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:13.040 of you know, private private networks is still relatively young. Yeah. Absolutely. Um. 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.520 Of course, in in your global network, China is a 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.440 is a big gap in terms of where you are. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.239 You know, it's been well documented that the Chinese government 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.560 has not has not welcomed Netflix. Is there any progress 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.600 or any any effort to get into that market? You know, 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:33.840 We've not, I menially, in the last couple of years 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.000 invested in trying to get there. I think that to 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.839 your point, I think the local government in China UH 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.199 is not like the Chinese versions of Netflix to be 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.920 Chinese UM. And so I think we have a lot 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.079 of a lot of folks in the industry I think 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.640 have been you know, running into walls trying to make 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.760 trying to change that and eventually eventually that eventually those 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.240 walls will come down. But I don't think it's gonna 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.200 happen anytime really soon. And I'm glad that we spend 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.439 most of our energies UH in countries that are that 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.400 welcome UH Netflix to be part of the entertainment landscape. 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.520 M Um. With all of the local language content that 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.880 you are doing now, I was wondering, how do you 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.440 must have to schedule your time to to watch some 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.319 all of that content or watch at least a sampling 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.959 of it. Do you do you literally like apportion your 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.120 schedule by continent maybe or uh? You know what I 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.319 really miss in our current times of uh of COVID restrictions. 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.760 What I really miss is the international travel. Uh. Beyond 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:34.840 just the ability to get out and see people around 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:38.160 the world. Uh, those long plane rides were really accommodating 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.800 to catching up on the viewing, to catch you watching 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.520 cuts of episodes and so so I do have to 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.200 be more discipline about regimenting my time to make sure 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.720 that I can get get in front of some of 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.360 the content. And the keith that really do that is 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:54.960 when I we first started this, you know, we were 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.040 doing two or three shows, and you can watch every 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.920 cut and read every draft of every script. And today 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.199 a you know, it's not unusual for shows to come 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.440 on Netflix without me having seen any of any of it. 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.360 And that's because we've got I've got incredible teams in 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.040 each of these content verticals in each of these countries 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:15.360 that are producing great original content and they're really empowered. Uh. 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.320 There's great, hugely experience that I get to step in 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:23.880 sometimes when things are particularly challenging or particular particularly celebratory. 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:26.800 UH that I'm part of that, But in general, the 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.160 teams that I have enabled the entire thing to scale. 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.080 UM I knew going you know, looking at those early 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.240 days that if we bottle neck decision behind me, we'd 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.280 never get anywhere. So we really had to, particularly now 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.199 that we're operating in you know, every time zone in 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.679 the world. So the opportunity to enable people to make 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.240 great choices and come up with great television and film 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.000 for the world has been one of the things that 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.720 most gratified by how this all turned out, UM, and 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:55.599 that it it really enabled it to scale in a 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.000 way that I think entertainment companies have a difficult time 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.400 scaling because their historical they are you know, wrapped around 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.840 these kind of cult to personalities or golden this idea 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.240 of golden guts and all those things. I hopefully, if 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.320 I have a golden gut, it's for people, UM, and 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.720 their ability to make great choices. You have some local, 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:19.040 local buyers, local managers have green have green light authority 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.840 in essence, they can order and commission content correct on 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.920 their own, on their own, and they you know, there's 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.280 some things obviously you want to check in with, but 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.320 for the most part, you know, they know those markets 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.120 better than we do. And you know, as as example, 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.400 Um uh Min Young is an executive of ours in Korea. 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.360 Uh she had come up pretty you know, pretty fast 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.720 and at Netflix and her her sense of the production 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.120 ecosystem in Korea was obviously far better than anybody in 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.760 Netflix at the time. Uh. And she's had incredible success 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.720 with our local language originals film and television in Korea 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.480 that are serving in the Korean market but also serving 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.120 throughout a pack and every once in a while you 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.600 get one, it just serves the world. Um. We had 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:02.679 a film and original film that came out this quarter, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.640 um hashtag alive. Um that it was a big global success, 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.840 one of our top non English films ever on Netflix. 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.960 M Um, have you having you know, watched the flate 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.640 you know, a sampling of shows undoubtedly from so many regions, 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.680 you know, looking at comedies and dramas and I'm sure 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:25.000 narrative and non narrative. Are there anything you know? I 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.320 would imagine that you've become something of a student of 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.480 cultures around the world. Are there any similarities that you 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.640 find in dramas or similarities that you find in comedies, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.640 or differences that stand out in your mind for content 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.480 in various regions. I'm always interested in what, you know, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.480 how similar the world is more so than I am. 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.360 And like what are the unique differences, because I think 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.960 people are mostly surprised at how similar tastes are, you know, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.719 like there's all this conventional wisdom about the entertainment is 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.280 about what does and doesn't travel. Most of it turns 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.480 out not to be true. What really travels is UM 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.280 great already telling UM super authentic characters that you can 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.040 really that people can relate to somewhere in the world. Uh. 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.640 And I think that this um notion of trying to 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.559 reverse engineering global storytelling is silly because really the most 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.319 things have been most successful the things that are most 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.959 authentically local, So that the better we do at identifying 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.920 those stories that are authentically local, the better success we have. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.000 So that helps a lot playing down the other convention 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:30.679 convention past, like French French comedy plays huge in France 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.960 and never travels. Uh. We we we had a great show 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.240 called Plank Core, great rom com uh that plays all 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.640 over Europe and all over the world. Uh. Just by 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.480 way of example, right now, our show Emily in Paris, 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.760 which is obviously an English language show American characters set 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.160 in Europe. You think that's kind of reverse engineering story, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.200 but it's just a it's a classic fish out of 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:51.800 water Story, so I played. That's why it plays so 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.960 well everywhere in the world. So I think in general, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.000 the one thing that that have been most fascinating Mexico 0:13:58.120 --> 0:13:59.800 was one of our early launches and one of our 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:05.600 the original content plays and the telenovelas obviously are quite 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.679 popular in Mexico, and we've kind of evolved what a 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.640 what a telenovela can look like. Um and I think 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.400 you know this this year recently we released a show 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.520 called Dark Desire Um that was an enormous success in 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.480 Mexico but also played everywhere that people really love that 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.760 kind of highly serialized, soapy storytelling. Uh. And so that 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.680 show is a huge success for us in India and 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.480 in Turkey, uh and in the US because it speaks 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.920 well to the Spanish speaking community. In the US, we 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.280 have seen a bit of a cultural class a culture 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:43.120 clash in the world and kind of coming through Netflix. 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.000 In the last couple of weeks in the United States, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.000 there's been a bit of an outcry over a movie 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.440 that you have on the platform. Cuti's um, a movie 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.119 that you know played Sundance gathered a claim at Sundance 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.440 when it came on Netflix and was very available to 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.720 the world. You know, I don't have to tell you 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.640 there has been some outcry in pockets in the US. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:07.800 How how do you feel about that? Does it? It 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.000 seems too many people that this is a you know 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.080 that this is UM, it's a it's a dangerous on 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.480 a First Amendment UM, on a First Amendment basis in 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.360 the in the United States. But it's also interesting in 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:25.440 that Netflix really has created something of a global village. Yeah, 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.560 I'm I'm frankly, I'm I'm surprised that it has been 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.600 more discussion about the First Amendment implications about this film. 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.680 It's a film that I would argue is very misunderstood 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.400 with some audiences, uniquely in the in the United States. UM. 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.320 I think the film itself speaks for itself. It's a 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.520 very personal coming of age film. UH. The directors, the 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.880 director's story, UM. And the film is you know, obviously 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:57.200 played very well UMU at Sundance and without any of 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.800 this controversy, played uh in theaters throughout Europe with without 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.640 any of this controversy. UH. And the film I think 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:06.840 does speak for itself. And I think it's it's a 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.400 little surprising that in America we're having a discussion about 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:16.080 censoring storytelling. Yeah, and you I mean, I think I 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.360 know the answer, But you have not considered making any 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:22.200 changes to the movie or or or limiting its access 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:29.440 in any way. M hm Um. Let's talk about a 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.160 little more specifically, like are there are there certain conditions 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.760 in markets that you look at before you decide to 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.400 invest big in original content? Is there like a you know, 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.440 broadband penetration, or is there like a certain number of 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.000 subs that you need in a market before you'll go 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.880 kind of deep on original original content for that region. 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.080 I think we're looking at like some some markets. Um, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.480 when we look at the opportunity, right, we're looking our 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.000 addressable audience. Really is everybody with access to the Internet 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.040 in a screen. Pretty big that way. So if you 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.159 only think about it as broadband penetration, you missed the 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.639 big population of folks who watch most of their content 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.320 on mobile phones and then and connect to the Internet 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.359 via mobile. So I do think that we have the 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.800 opportunity is bigger than broadband penetration or pay television penetration. Uh, 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.640 those are the easy ones because I think it goes 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.240 to um, socio economics of that country. Uh that you know, 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:30.119 you have an opportunity to reach audiences quickly. Um and so, 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.040 but I think it's in the next piece of it 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.760 is kind of the entertainment cultures, right, of these countries 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.840 that really thrive on storytelling, big pay television markets, big 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.040 uh movie going, all those kind of things. So there's 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.920 a whole list of things that line up sometimes perfectly. 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.080 And then you have places like Brazil, um, which you know, 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.320 very young, vibrant population, great storytelling culture, great move great 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.240 television market, great movie cultures, uh, and just people who 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.920 are just hungry for great content. So we're uh. That 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.480 was kind of one of our early breakouts if for international, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.520 was our success of Brazil, and I think he has 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:09.920 a lot to do with the excitement and vibrant for 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:18.360 the population in Brazil. We'll be right back. Strictly, business 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.840 is brought to you in part by City National Bank, 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:23.640 the bank who makes it their business to be personal. 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.560 A City National relationship manager can anticipate the financial needs 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.879 that make the entertainment and tech industries tick. That's because 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.240 they've been doing it for more than sixty five years. 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.159 Need to figure out day to day finances done. Someone 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:45.520 that understands intellectual property licensing, and royalties. Absolutely. City National 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.760 understands the industry because they were born in it. Visit 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:54.440 c NB dot com and get started. City National Bank 0:18:54.760 --> 0:19:02.520 member f D I C. Welcome back to strictly Business. 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.160 Here's more of my conversation with Ted Surrandos, PO CEO 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.840 and Chief Content Officer for Netflix. Do you find that 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.959 in like the bigger in the bigger global global markets 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.840 in Europe and Latin America and Asia, do you find 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:21.400 that your biggest competitors tend to be regional or local 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.879 players or are you going you know, you feel like 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.840 you get this the same sort of um competition from 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.560 an Amazon or from other from the other you know 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.000 some of the some of the competitors that are active 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.879 in the US as well. Yeah, they're pretty much the 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.080 same pool of folks. You know. The thing that we're 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.560 competing with mostly is for you know, with folks for 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.360 what time that they're spending on screens, so that can 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:50.000 be through traditional television or through various uh subscription services 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.440 and also things like YouTube. You know, many countries television 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.600 watching is dominated about YouTube. So we're we're looking at 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:58.280 all that, we look at all those markets and all 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.639 those folks who we compete with, but we mostly focus 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:02.959 on our members and mostly try to focus on how 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.080 do you make these folks happy? How do you make 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.800 the shows that they can't live without? Um. And if 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:09.320 we focus on that, we don't have to worry too 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.119 much about competitors. UM. We know that it's a big, 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.119 enormous market and there's gonna be multiple players. You know, 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.879 there's hundreds of channels of cable television around the world 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.440 against satellite television. There are uh countless numbers of video 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.080 competitors on the internet. UH. So you look at that 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.440 and say, you know, we we always know there's gonna 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.879 be folks. Yet we're competing with for people's affinity and 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.439 love and attention and time. Uh. And we do that 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.320 by with two great storytelling and delivering a great product 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.440 for people. So when they push play uh anywhere in 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.840 the world, uh, it works UM. And it's in many 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.439 cases in the local language. UH. And it's oriented to 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:49.320 what your taste is so that you could find great 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.199 things to watch. Uh. And that's that great kind of 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:56.119 convergence of of great tech and great storytelling. M HM. 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.760 And I think you guys have have accurately said that 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.359 one of your biggest competitor yours is in fact sleep. 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.879 But we want people to sleep. Though we do want 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.280 don't sacrifice anything, and don't don't sacrifice any sleep time. 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:10.840 We want some of you more of your screen time, 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:17.200 but your sleep time. Please keep keep sleep. It's important. UM. Obviously, 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.040 COVID has been the curve just has been an enormous 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.919 curveball for virtually every economics sector and every country on 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:30.760 the planet. Have you, um, have you did you have 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.640 to adjust either up or down or make big changes 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.520 into your into the your plans for your content spending 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:42.480 in has it been much revisions? The main thing I'm 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.479 really proud of, you know, we throughout the one thing 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.720 that really benefits from being UH Internet Global company is 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.280 that throughout the early stages of the COVID shutdown, UH, 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.439 in some places they did not shut down, like in 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:59.080 Iceland and Sweden. UH. And we were able to figure 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.640 out safety prod of calls that have served us really 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.399 well all over the world, and our productions were mostly 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.280 up and running. UH. And with our productions all over 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.920 the world, we're shooting about a hundred yards from where 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.520 I'm sitting right now on a stage UH, and it's 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:16.440 I and it's making me a little crazy. I can't 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:18.600 go over there because our code, because of our protocol 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:23.240 safety protocols that I don't go visit the sets. But 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.560 those sets and the safety protocols have kept these operations 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.800 incredibly safe and healthy, uh and make the talent feel 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.840 very comfortable, uh that they are being protected and looked 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.320 out for. UH. So at first it was we don't. 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:38.000