Amid reports that Netflix is looking to shift how it compensates talent, the streamer’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria set the record straight that Netflix is “not changing” its model.
“The press really wants to write about the story … and everybody wants there to be a story there,” Bajaria said Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime Conference in Los Angeles. “That is clearly evidenced by what’s been written, including total fabrications about meetings that were about it, which is not true.”
“We are not changing our model,” Bajaria continued. “Our model works great for talent; it works great for filmmakers. We like the model, so we are not changing our compensation model.”
Still, Bajaria said there are a “few bespoke deals” that have been brokered by the streamer as “some talent was interested in the opportunity” of taking the risk of waiting for profits on the backend. “I can count them on one hand — I can actually count them on two fingers,” Bajaria said in reference to the deals. “It’s very tiny thing that has blown up to the story of, ‘We’re changing our business.’”
While Bajaria said Netflix is “willing to pivot and grow,” the executive noted the streamer is staying true to its model as a “subscription business” when it comes to film releases, leading Netflix not to opt for a theatrical push.
“We’re very committed to movies, but for us, what really we know is people, audiences love movies, and we know they like to watch them at home, and we do care about consumer-first control,” she said. “They want to watch what they want, when they want, how they want and we want to give great, theatrical quality movies to run to the living rooms of our members.”
Speaking with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, Bajaria also announced greenlights for Season 2 of Kristen Bell and Adam Brody-led romcom series, “Nobody Wants This,” as well as Season 3 for Keri Russell’s political thriller series, “The Diplomat,” which will debut its second season in late October.
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