Ted Sarandos, has been announced as the co-CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of American media services provider and production company; Netflix Inc. Sarandos who has also been inaugurated into the board of directors, will be occupying said position alongside Netflix’s co-founder Reed Hastings.
The announced was made as part of the company’s release regarding its 2nd quarter earnings. It is not however known if the announcement will take effect immediately.
In a letter to Netflix’s shareholders co-founder Reed Hastings said, “Ted has been my partner for decades. This change makes formal what was already informal — that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix”.
With regards to the day to day operations at the company, He added that he does not expect a lot to change stating that, “our key executive leadership groups are unchanged,” and he further characterized as the move as “Ted’s well deserved promotion formalizing how we already run the business today.”
While the new development could be perceived as a step or preparation for the current CEO’s exit from the company, he however has no plans to leave the company anytime soon and has reassured stakeholders and observers alike that he is in it for the foreseeable future.
CEO Reed Hastings said, “To be totally clear, I’m in for a decade — let me be really clear on that… I’m in for a decade. As co-CEO, it’s two of us full time. It’s not like a part time deal.”
Ted Sarandos joined Netflix in 1999 and has been with the company for more than 20 years, serving as the company’s Chief Content Officer. In that capacity, Sarandos, was responsible for the company’s widely successful original offerings which include series like Stranger Things, Marco Polo, 13 Reasons Why and Altered Carbon.
Sarandos was also instrumental in turning Netflix into one of Hollywood’s biggest and most successful content creators. The company now often times dominates award shows and the conversations surrounding them and pull this off in less than 10 years. A lot of the growth is attributed to Sarandos and his team of executives who work on both Film and TV.
Ted Sarandos in a statement made it known that, “I have also been tremendously fortunate in the teams we have built at Netflix, as we have reinvented ourselves again and again to meet our members’ needs: from DVD to streaming, from licensing to originals, from series to film and from US to local language stories told by creators all around the world.”
Mr. Sarandos also played a huge role in helping the company grow from its humble beginnings of being a DVD mail service, to the giant that it is today. As at the time of putting this article together, around more than half of the content on Netflix are original content by the company. An amazing feat in itself and proof that its move to reduce its dependence on licensing, is beginning to pay off.
Netflix has also overtime, sought the services of talented directors like Ava DuVernay, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater and Sam Hargrave.
Netflix’s co-founder Reed Hastings said, “I still pinch myself when I think about what we’ve built together — with almost 200 million members and tremendous room for growth as consumers embrace internet entertainment”. He added, “If we continue to improve our service and the quality of our shows and films, we can get to serve hundreds of millions more people over the next ten years. It’s why I am so excited about being at Netflix for the decade ahead.”
Netflix’s Lead Independent Director; Jay Hoag said, “Having watched Reed and Ted work together for so long, the board and I are confident this is the right step to evolve Netflix’s management structure so that we can continue to best serve our members and shareholders for years to come”.
