Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos, Greg Peters Pulled in Combined $129 Million in 2022 as Stock Sank

Ted Sarandos, who was set to receive the PEN America Visionary Award at the literary group’s gala next week in NYC, won’t be attending amid an ongoing strike and vigorous picketing on both coasts by the WGA.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos will no longer attend a gala meant to honor him next week in New York. The decision comes as labor issues grab headlines across Hollywood. Sarandos was set to accept the Business Visionary Award at the annual PEN American Spring Literary Gala, alongside fellow honoree Lorne Michaels and a host of literati including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Susan Choi, Jennifer Egan, Min Jin Lee, Jay McInerney and Gay Talese. He’s skipping the event, to be held under the blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History, as many industry celebrations weigh how to address the writers strike. “Given the potential to disrupt this wonderful evening, I thought it was best to pull out so as not to distract from the important work that PEN America does for writers and journalists, as well as the celebration of my friend and personal hero Lorne Michaels. I hope the evening is a great success,” Sarandos told Variety in a statement.

BreAnna Bell Hannah Gadsby isn’t a one-trick-pony, and that point is driven home with their latest standup performance on Netflix, titled “Something Special.” The comedian is proving they’ve grown, revealing that this show is meant to show them “changing as life changes them.” Instead of the scrutinizing takes on celebrity culture for which they’ve become known, in “Something Special,” Gadsby offers a more positive outlook on life as they share personal stories about their new marriage to their partner, Jenney Shamash, and family anecdotes. But Gadsby’s growth hasn’t happened without controversy. After publicly criticizing Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos for comedian Dave Chappelle’s anti-trans comments made in his 2021 special, “The Closer,” Gadsby went on to sign a multi-year deal with the streamer in the hopes that they would inspire positive change.

The first episode of “Queen Charlotte” features a dedication to Jacqueline Avant which might leave viewers scratching their heads.

Naman Ramachandran India is the fastest growing market market in the world for giant streamer Netflix and Monika Shergill, VP, content, for the country, has a clear plan to keep the trajectory going. “A healthy streaming business, according to us, has to be built on the strong fundamentals of engagement, where we are doing very well, and revenue and profit as a global service. We are a profitable service – in many of our markets, we are on the path to profitability,” Shergill told Variety. Earlier this year, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos had said that content watching grew by 30% last year in India and revenue grew by 25%. In a subsequent earnings call, Sarandos addressed the importance of pricing in India, saying: “We’ve got to get pricing and the main payment methods right.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Writer and comedian Adam Conover blasted David Zaslav, the Warner Bros Discovery CEO, during an interview with CNN on Tuesday, a company Zaslav also oversees. “David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of the network I’m talking to you on right now, was paid $250 million last year, a quarter of a billion dollars,” Conover said during his interview with CNN correspondent Sara Sidner. “That’s about the same level as what 10,000 writers are asking him to pay all of us collectively, alright. So I would say if you’re being paid $250 million — these companies are making enormous amounts of money. Their profits are going up. It’s ridiculous for them to plead poverty.”

Charlie Collier, who segued last fall from lengthy exec stints at Fox Corp. and AMC Networks to a top post at Roku, took the stage at his first NewFronts pitch Tuesday to invite advertisers to bring their messages to the stream.

unable to reach a deal in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.The guild has shared an infographic that outlines the $773 million in combined salary that eight major Hollywood studio CEOs made in 2021. They include Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel ($308.2 million), Warner Bros.

Netflix has said it will invest $2.5BN in South Korean series, films and unscripted shows over the next four years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Global streaming giant Netflix has publicly committed to spending $2.5 billion (approx. KRW3.34 trillion) on South Korean film and TV production over the next four years. The total is double the amount it has spent in Korea since 2016, the company said. The promise was made by Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, at a meeting in Washington DC with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. “We were able to make this decision because we have great confidence that the Korean creative industry will continue to tell great stories. We were also inspired by the President’s love and strong support for the Korean entertainment industry and fueling the Korean wave. I’d like to personally thank the President for his kind response letter,” Sarandos said in a statement.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Reed Hastings, who stepped aside as co-CEO of Netflix in January, and co-chief Ted Sarandos both saw double-digit increases in their compensation packages for 2022, with their total pay topping $50 million each. Hastings’ total pay last year was $51.07 million, $49.4 million of which was in stock option awards, up 25% from 2021, the streamer disclosed in its 2023 proxy statement Friday. Sarandos’ pay jumped 31.5% in 2022, to $50.3 million, comprising $20 million base annual salary, $28.5 million in stock options and $1.79 million in other compensation (including $1.43 million in residential security costs). In stepping down as co-CEO, Hastings will take a huge pay cut: For 2023, as executive chairman, he’s eligible to receive a $500,000 base salary plus $2.5 million in stock options, according to a Netflix 8-K filing with the SEC. In the co-CEO role, he stood to make $34.7 million this year, mostly in stock.

Reed Hastings saw his total pay package jump by about $10 million last year to $51 million on a new stock option grant. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos pulled in total compensation of $50.3 million, up from $38.2 million, also on a bigger option grant.

Over the weekend, the “Love Is Blind” reunion made headlines. But though the season 4 conclusion was filled with plenty of drama, it was Netflix’s inability to get the event, which had been advertised as its second live special, to stream on time.

reunion made headlines. But though the season 4 conclusion was filled with plenty of drama, it was Netflix's inability to get the event, which had been advertised as its second live special, to stream on time.After promises that they were waiting to start the special until it could stream, Netflix eventually gave up and recorded the reunion.

Netflix Orders Season 2 Of ‘Rana Naidu’

Naman Ramachandran “Rana Naidu,” the Indian adaptation of “Ray Donovan,” has been renewed for a second season by Netflix. The news emerged the same day that Netflix announced a 1.75 million jump in subscriptions worldwide. The action thriller that stars Venkatesh Daggubati and Rana Daggubati trended on the No.1 spot as the most watched series in India for three consecutive weeks after launch last month and continues to be in the top 10 series in India for the fifth week in a row. It trended in Netflix’s global top 10 for non-English TV for two weeks after it launched on March 10.

Ted Sorrandoes was asked point-blank in Tuesday’s quarterly earnings call about resisting Netflix’s current reluctance to give their films conventional theatrical releases, a stance that has now put the company at odds with most of their streaming competition. The short answer: Don’t stop a horse in mid-stream.“The film division is doing great,” stated Sarandos. “They really are building out some great films.

Netflix is owning up to the long delay they had with the Love Is Blind live reunion.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company will likely spend roughly $17 billion on content in 2024, steady with 2023 levels.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters revealed what exactly went wrong with the live “Love Is Blind” Season 4 reunion special on Sunday — and how they plan to fix the problem with other live broadcasts moving forward. “We’re really sorry to disappoint so many people,” Peters said during a prerecorded Q1 earnings interview Tuesday. “We didn’t meet the standard that we expect ourselves: to serve our members and just be clear from a technical perspective. We’ve got the infrastructure. We had just a bug that we introduced, actually, when we implemented some changes to try to improve live-streaming performance after the last live broadcast, Chris Rock[‘s ‘Selective Outrage’] in March. We just didn’t see this bug in internal testing because it only became apparent once we put multiple systems interacting with each other under the load of millions of people trying to watch ‘Love Is Blind.'”