Netflix EMEA Boss Says California Mothership Is “Very Hands Off” On International Content Strategy
19.06.2024 - 07:17
/ deadline.com
Netflix‘s EMEA chief has described his Los Gatos overlords as “very hands off” when it comes to content strategy outside the U.S.
Speaking to journalists at a Netflix site tour in Spain, Larry Tanz said the days when Money Heist creator Álex Pina had to “literally fly to LA to pitch a show so that he could make it in Spain” are long gone, as he talked up the streamer’s latest wave of local content.
Instead, creatives are now pitching shows in Spanish to local content chief Diego Ávalos, explained Tanz, “and that’s true in [territories like] Germany and Italy.”
“Creators used to have to figure out a way to break into Hollywood just so they could realize their creative vision,” said Tanz, who was speaking a day after Netflix opened an office around the corner from its Tres Cantos studio in Madrid. “Some companies still operate that way but we made this shift quite a number of years ago. Our footprint [outside the U.S.] used to be a small townhouse in Amsterdam and now we have 11 offices, teams in different countries and production all over Europe.” He described his U.S. bosses as “very hands off” when it comes to local commissioning strategies.
Journalists at the event were given a tour of the virtual set of Pina’s new series, The Fallout Shelter – co-created with Esther Martínez Lobato – following a group of billionaires who seek refuge in a luxury bunker as World War III breaks out around them.
Tanz used The Fallout Shelter as an example of a show heavily targeted at its local audience, free from the pressure of the latest global hit.
“[Viewing to] Suits shot up last year and all of a sudden we saw the industry follow these lawyer dramas and we just said, ‘No, we’re going to do something completely different,” he