Co-CEO says Netflix ‘not growing as fast as I want’

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that the streaming giant’s growth fell below expectations, adding that live shows could provide a welcome boost. Netflix posted a growth rate of 13.4 per cent between April and June — the lowest in nearly three years — and saw a modest two per cent rise in viewing hours in the first half of the year.

“Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to,” Sarandos said during the annual Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles. Live programming could “move the needle quite a bit on that number”, the co-CEO added.

The production of live shows takes up five per cent of Netflix’s annual US$20 billion content budget and generates just one percent of viewing — but Sarandos said “they do a very different job”. “They generate a lot of signups. They’re really effective for signup retention, advertising,” he said.