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Tag: Reed Hastings

  • Netflix’s Reed Hastings skims $225 mn in stock sale

    Netflix’s Reed Hastings skims $225 mn in stock sale

    MUMBAI: Netflix co-chief executive officer Reed Hastings has collected $225 million from a stock sale, the latest in a series of such transactions the billionaire has made this year, totalling $616 million.

    A Bloomberg Quint report states that Hastings has cashed in enough moolah in 2020 to produce all four seasons of marquee series The Crown, all six seasons of Peaky Blinders, or the equivalent of about 4.7 million annual Netflix subscriptions, based on average monthly subscription costs. The sales, the latest of which was on 21 December, were made as part of a trading plan believed to boost the streamer-producer’s content creation budget.

    Netflix stock has climbed 63 per cent this year as the streaming service has added 28.1 million new subscribers during the first nine months of 2020, accelerated by increased demand for at-home entertainment during the Covid2019 pandemic. In fact, Hastings has seen his wealth increase about $2.2 billion this year to $6.4 billion, going by Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which also pegs him as the 120th richest person in the US.

    Hastings sold 437,311 shares of Netflix stock on 21 December 2020 at an average price of $527.26 a share. The total sale was $230.6 million. Prior to this, he sold 213,346 shares on 23 November 2020 at the average price of $482.51. The price of the stock has increased by 9.29 per cent since.

    For the uninitiated, Hastings started his first tech business, Pure Software, in 1991, before going on to co-found Netflix with Pure colleague Marc Randolph in 1997.

    Another former Netflix director Anthony Wood, who is also the co-founder of Roku Inc, has made hay during the pandemic. Wood’s wealth has doubled in the last three months as sales of the firm’s streaming players increased 57 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier.

  • Netflix’s reinvigorated strategy for the next decade & India’s growing role

    Netflix’s reinvigorated strategy for the next decade & India’s growing role

    KOLKATA: Netflix wants to be the ‘best friend’, the primary choice of streamers across the world. While the streaming rat race is picking up internationally, Netflix is moving fast and expanding its content mix. It has moved on from only focusing on scripted episodic originals to also strive to replicate the success of premium TV in unscripted content, movies and animation. This, for Netflix, is the “next decade” of opportunities.

    “We are so excited about the next decade of Netflix growth. We've definitely got a good start, but the opportunity across the next decade is just amazing for us. It's a lot international but I couldn't be more excited about it, and it will be great to have some help as we expand the globe, and I'm looking forward to that.  And to be totally clear, I'm in for a decade. And as co-CEO, it's two of us full time. It's not like a part-time deal. So it's definitely broadening the management team and help us grow even faster over the next 10 years,” Netflix co-founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings said as he named chief content officer Ted Sarandos as co-CEO.

    Is Netflix in the next ten years the same compared to the last years? Hastings said in an earnings call after Q2 results that it has got a good model for the next ten years and just need to make it better. Netflix has historically spent most of its money on content but it is also working on making the service better, more user-friendly with a smarter UI.

    “A couple of years ago, we only had a premium TV. And now to be really good in movies, to be really good in unscripted, emerging in animation, very strong in local language shows and series, I mean it's an incredible expansion that Ted has pulled off over the last five years. So think of it as just us doing more of that at a higher scale and pleasing more people,” he added. 

    Sarandos, the content king at Netflix said that if the platform aims to be the go-to destination for entertainment, it would not be a smart move to ignore the area of programming that dominates broadcast. Hence, it has been dabbling in unscripted reality. Notably, Netflix has significantly spoken more of animated content in the last one year which is the best weapon of its rival Disney+.

    Hastings said that the content team is coming up with some big bets. “We want to have so many hits that when you come to Netflix, you can just go from hit to hit to hit and never have to think about any of those other services, right? We want to be like your primary, your best friend, the one you turn to. And of course, occasionally, there's Hamilton and you're going to go to someone else's service for an extraordinary film. But for the most part, we want to be the one that just always please you with the convenience, simple and easy choice,” Hastings said.

    Despite leading the streaming revolution, competition is going to be the biggest challenge for the pioneer in the next ten years with deep-pocket rivals like Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Peacock having entered the market. Even more of the traditional networks are now pulling off content from Netflix for their digital arms causing a big dent in the library as the evergreen popular shows still attract eyeballs.

    As the US market gets overcrowded with large-scale contenders, Netflix is going to focus highly on international markets. “When I think about what our future is and I think it's just a tremendous next stage of growth that we will see mostly coming from outside the United States. So think of more and more employees outside the United States, more productions, more operations happening outside the US and hopefully, many, many more members outside the US. This is an opportunity to lean in just a little bit more, be proactive and drive a little bit more alignment across those activities where we think alignment will benefit the business and push the optimisation of those activities a little bit more,” Netflix COO and chief product officer Gregory Peters said.

    Meanwhile, Netflix has already set its eye on the largest growing OTT market – India.  It set an audacious goal of getting its next 100 million subscribers from the country. This is a tougher market to crack given the local rivals alongside Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video. In the last quarter, it has added less than three million paid subscribers from the entire APAC region. However, despite the slow growth, Netflix is increasing investment here. A few days ago, it announced 17 new local originals. As the Netflix bosses embrace the excitement for the coming 10 years, reinvigorated content strategy and international expansion can save it from the dwindling position of once-undisputed streaming king and definitely there will more spending to get Indian audiences.

  • Netflix content king Ted Sarandos named co-CEO

    Netflix content king Ted Sarandos named co-CEO

    KOLKATA: The brain behind the content strategy of the undisputed king in streaming service has additional responsibility now. Netflix has named its chief content officer Ted Sarandos as co-CEO of the company. In addition to that, Netflix has also appointed Greg Peters to be its chief operating officer, in addition to his role as chief product officer. 

    “Ted has been my partner for decades. This change makes formal what was already informal — that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix,” Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings said while announcing the Q2 result. 

    Sarandos will continue as the company's chief content officer also. “My journey to co-CEO of Netflix has been as a fan of great entertainment. And that's my commitment to Netflix members going forward: to keep pushing the boundaries of what a consumer-first company can achieve for people who love stories,” he said.

    "Ted’s been instrumental to our success as a company. While I saw streaming coming and pushed for it, Ted drove the revolution in our content strategy, which was way ahead of its time and has been key to our continued success. It was typical of his ability to see where the industry – and consumer tastes – are headed. He’s built an extraordinary team, attracting some of the most creative and best entertainment executives from all around the world," said Hastings.

    Sarandos praised Hastings as an unbelievable role model and source of inspiration for him  and stated in an earnings call, “my focus is to continue the successful train we’ve been on for the next 200 million subs around the world.” 

    "Greg’s appointment as COO reflects the strategic and analytical strengths he’s brought to our product team over the past 10 years. As we’ve grown, one of my biggest roles at Netflix has been to be broad across the company, getting to know many different people in every area of our business. This has helped Netflix stay mostly aligned, loosely coupled and very productive. In his new role, I want Greg to take on more of this work so that we continue to improve rapidly. Eventually he needs to know every corner of Netflix better than I do today," added Hastings.

    These changes are part of a long process of succession planning, announced Hastings. "While transitions can be hard, I am optimistic because we have a well established culture that’s built to be flexible and many years to get good at this. I’m committed to Netflix for the long term,” he added.

  • Big growth in viewing in India led by originals: Netflix’s Ted Sarandos

    Big growth in viewing in India led by originals: Netflix’s Ted Sarandos

    MUMBAI: Last year, Netflix rolled out a mobile-only plan in India to suit the country's preference for smartphones over laptops. Moreover, it was a way to delve deeper into a market where its basic Rs-500-a-month subscription plan was sharply expensive compared to homegrown OTT giants. The bet got the success it hoped for and Netflix followed the footprint in other markets as well. After nearly a year, the streaming service seems satisfied in the uptake of mobile-only plans as well as its overall growth here.

    “It's a plan (mobile-only plan) that we've tested for a while and we have rolled it out now in a bunch of countries: India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. And it's consistent with the broad theme and goal that we have which is why we're seeking effective ways to make the Netflix service more accessible to more and more people around the world,” Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters said in an earnings call.

    This strategy has helped Netflix witness a significant increase in acceleration and addition of new members. From a revenue perspective, it's also helping the company go from "neutral to positive", which Peters says will be good in the long term for the business.

    While all streaming players have witnessed magical growth in users during this COVID-19 lockdown, everyone is keen to know about Netflix’s growth in the period. Peters said he would not draw any strong contrast between India and other countries around the world. He mentioned that it is putting high effort to make the offering more competitive and attractive to members.

    “We've seen a big growth in viewing in India and have had great success for our local originals. Most recently was She andGuilty and a few others have been driving a lot of engagement in local content on our India service and they also are big fans of our global original content like Lacasa de Papel. So we're growing the business of licensed originals, international and domestic, across the board,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

  • Netflix adds whopping 15.77 mn subscribers during lockdown, warns of future growth decline

    Netflix adds whopping 15.77 mn subscribers during lockdown, warns of future growth decline

    MUMBAI: Netflix has brought good news for its investors with a high jump in subscriber growth. The streaming service added a net 15.77 million paid streaming customers in the first quarter of 2020, much higher than the previous guidance, due to the worldwide lockdown. However, it has also warned of a decline in viewing and growth further down the road as governments will lift the home confinement orders with progress against COVID-19.

    “Our internal forecast and guidance is for 7.5 million global paid net additions in Q2. Given the uncertainty on home confinement timing, this is mostly guesswork. The actual Q2 numbers could end up well below or well above that, depending on many factors including when people can go back to their social lives in various countries and how much people take a break from television after the lockdown,” the company stated in a letter to its shareholders.

    “Some of the lockdown growth will turn out to be pull-forward from the multi-year organic growth trend, resulting in slower growth after the lockdown is lifted country-by-country. Intuitively, the person who didn’t join Netflix during the entire confinement is not likely to join soon after the confinement,” it added.

    Netflix founder-CEO Reed Hastings later said in an earnings call that the long-term implication is still tough to predict as the world is grappling with uncertainty. But he also added that they are certain about "internet entertainment's" growth in people's lives and it will be gradually more important in the next five years.

    In its first quarter report, the streaming service reported revenue along the line of guidance despite nearly double growth of subscribers as sharp rise in dollar has offset international revenue. The revenue for the quarter was at $5.77 billion, while net income stood at $709 million with EPS of $1.57. 

    As it has paused most of its productions across the world in response to the crisis, the impact will be less cash spending this year as some content projects are pushed out. This will shift out some cash spending on content to future years. Netflix hopes this dynamic may result in more lumpiness in its path to sustained free cash flow profitability. 

    “The one thing that's not widely understood is that we work really far out, relative to the industry, because we launch our shows all see all episodes at once, and we're working far out all over the world. So our 2020 slate of series and films are largely shot, and we are in post production remotely in locations all over the world. So, and we're actually pretty deep into our 2021 slate. So we're not anticipating big moving things around,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos commented in an earnings call on the production stoppage’s impact on Netflix.

    However, the streaming giant remains equally uncertain about when production will resume. But it has emphasised that it will look for the ability to test for the virus, work with production partners and local governments. It will also try to learn from its current experiences in Iceland and South Korea where productions are still on and will apply the same to other geographies, as Sarandos shared.

  • TV & video people who made an impact in 2019

    TV & video people who made an impact in 2019

    MUMBAI: Even as the curtains have gone down on 2019, Indiantelevision.com is happy to reveal its list of senior executives from the business of TV and video, who were constantly under the arc light throughout the year or made waves on account of something they did. We have put in our best efforts to cover as many of the noteworthy professionals of 2019 as we could, taking into consideration the importance of their roles in the organisation and industry as well as the significant contributions they made in the year. We do not say the list is comprehensive, and any omissions are unintended.  We hope you will find the first part of this list interesting read. More will follow in the coming days.

    Sanjay Gupta

    His departure from Star India – a company which he helped steer along with Uday Shankar for around a decade- came as a shocker for many in industry. But he was leaving for the digital world – that of Alphabet or Google – and he would be heading the India operations for the global juggernaut.

    From close friends and associates, Shankar and Gupta will be on two different sides of the spectrum. There will be many areas that Star Disney-Google will be able to work on together; in some maybe not.  Clearly, the digital and entertainment world is going to be an exciting one with them at the top of their respective companies.

    Uday Shankar

    For long, the boss of Star India has been seen as the mover and shaker of the broadcast industry. But for the last two years, he’s had an additional responsibility: overseeing the merger across Asia-Pacific of Twenty First Century Fox with Disney, including its biggest and most prized territory, India. And he came out with flying colors: the transition was relatively smooth, not too much bad press emerged, and overall the merged company, now looks forward to bearing the fruits of the union.  Morale at the two companies – or should we say the merged company – is high as Shankar continues to organise, shuffle reshuffle, hire, rejig executive portfolios to build an organisation for the future.

    Star India notched up losses, but those were for costs of prized but expensive cricket rights and these were planned. Hotstar continued to set record after viewing record, Star India retained its position as a top Indian TV network and he even managed the departure of his deputy Sanjay Gupta by looking for talent in-house and appointing the successful regional TV boss K Madhavan as his head of all television, while he took on the responsibility for the network’s streaming service. He along with Bob Iger and the Disney Plus team will have to take calls on how they will launch Disney Plus in India in 2020

    K Madhavan

    He is the shy and not-so-used-to-the-public-eye professional with the midas touch who ran and helped built the southern business for the Star India network from nothing over the years. Of course, under the direct steerage of Uday Shankar.

    It began with the acquisition of the Tamil channel Vijay from UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala nearly all of 19 years ago. Madhavan came on board Star India in 2008 when Star India purchased a majority stake in Asianet. He had the credentials – he had helped turn around the struggling Malayalam network after he took over in 1999, and giving it an indomitable position in Kerala very soon thereafter. With it came three Malayalam channels and two Kannada ones. Star completed its southern footprint by acquiring the Telugu service, MAA Television Network in 2015. As head of the southern business of Star India, he grew it further until it contributed a significant sum to its topline business.

    And for that, he has been rewarded now with oversight of the overall TV business of the now Disney owned network. Madhavan’s immediate focus will be on the Hindi GEC business of Star India, which is perceptibly under threat from streamers who are dishing out edgy content, which is appealing to younger mobile audiences.  Additionally, he will have to find ways of monetising the network’s TV cricket rights better. He has the pedigree and 2020 will see his imprint being left on what is now his charge. 

    Punit Goenka & Subhash Chandra

    What do we say about Punit Goenka but that 2019 was the year when he showed what stuff excellent CEOs can be made of. No other executive comes even close to the plaudits that Punit has got for managing the tough situation that the promoter family of Zee Entertainment got itself into. Along with his father, they convinced existing investors to buy equity in the company to pay off lenders. Yes, it meant lowering the promoter family holding to around five per cent. But even that was acceptable to both Goenka and Chandra. The company was above family holding. Zeel for its part is a very well run media outfit with a bunch of excellent senior professionals that Goenka has brought in place and whose respect he has earned courtesy of the fact that he is so approachable. The company is now en route to monetise more than any other broadcaster in the regional language space by launching channels in Kannada, Punjabi etc.

    That aside, along with his brother Amit, and Zee5 CEO Tarun Katiyal, he helped hyper-activate the group’s streaming service Zee5 – launching originals like there was no tomorrow. Today, Zee5 looks like one of the more promising OTT platforms with SVOD, AVOD, and adtech plays.

    Hiren Gada

    When Hiren Gada was nominated as CEO of Shemaroo, he was relatively unknown to most in industry. From being a content rights owner, which licensed its library to everybody, Shemaroo has now become a platform owner in streaming service ShemarooMe, which has an interesting offering. A wide array of content, gamification, special offerings, licensing and merchandising, Gada has transformed Shemaroo by bringing in young professionals and giving them wings to fly. In fact, his singular focus has been to transform the once family-run but now publicly listed Shemaroo into a professional organisation. To that accord, he has hired from mainline entertainment and media firms and upped the ante on distributing his OTT service in as many countries as possible. He has been attentive to monetise the content library as well, by continuing to provide value-added services to other platforms as well.

    NP Singh

    NP Singh was at his customary best: staying out of the limelight. But even behind the scenes, he was hard at work. First, along with his Culver city management, he got into deep conversation with the Zeel promoter family for a buyout. The price Sony Pictures put on the table was chunky, but Chandra and Goenka wanted to retain control, they were okay with investment bankers and institutions reducing their stake to a minority, but not a rival media and entertainment firm. Hence, a deal which was looking hot suddenly became cold.

    Singh played a big role in the parleys with Mukesh Ambani to merge his media assets TV18 with Sony for a large period of the second half of the year. The deal had not materialised at the time of writing, but it well could in the new year.

    The quiet-and-polite-to-a-T  executive had a good year on the TV front with his Sony Entertainment Network, SAB, Max group of channels and kids channel Sony Yay all doing well. Sony Entertainment Network, which was lagging for long, finally got its act right under Danish Khan with a mix of good reality, talent, talk and celebrity stand up offerings in 2019.

    Harit Nagpal

    If there’s one platform that has come out with shining colours in 2019, it is the Harit Nagpal-run Tata Sky. The professional who keeps a razor-sharp eye on consumer experience was quick off the blocks in stitching equitable win-win deals with broadcasters, and then followed that quickly with a campaign educating Tata Sky subscribers on the TRAI mandated New Tariff Order. The DTH platform offered packages and also had its call centre employees well equipped to answer queries. Net result: Tata Sky signed up 3 million active subscribers at a time when other platforms added less than one-third its adds, giving it a 32 per cent market share.   

    Nagpal also came up with new packages serving HD channels then introduced Binge – an Amazon firestick service innovation – delivering OTT apps and special programming to its consumers on one device. It pushed its broadband offering as well, offering competitively priced plans.

    Reed Hastings

    He is not Indian but has big ambitions on Indians. And it’s his pronouncements and actions which have been excited the creative and production community in India, like elsewhere in the world. For long Netflix big boss Reed Hastings has avowed that the next 100 million customers for the streamer are going to come from India. And he has been putting his money where his mouth is, promising to invest Rs 3,000 crore in India in his latest announcement as the year was ending. Continuing with the localisation drive he lured local creative professionals like Monika Shergill and Aashish Singh in early 2019 to lead digital and film originals respectively. And since then Netflix has commissioned filmmakers of the calibre of Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan to produce digital series for the streaming service. A host of filmmakers too are being signed on as it battles competition from the likes of Amazon Prime, and a string of local players. Concerned by the sluggish uptake of subscriptions since it launched three years ago in India, Hastings and team Netflix put in place a mobile-only plan priced at Rs 199 a month. Deals have also been struck with almost every platform to make sure Netflix is easily accessible to those interested in it. 

    Attractive pricing and cutting edge content are the two planks Hastings has put in place. 2020 will decide how much that translates into results and his envisioned goal for India.

  • Netflix to spend Rs 3000 crore on Indian content

    Netflix to spend Rs 3000 crore on Indian content

    MUMBAI: Netflix is upping its India game significantly as the streaming giant is ready to spend Rs 3000 crore on Indian content for this year and the next. Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings spoke about the investment during his India visit on Friday while illustrating the country’s important in their business.

    "We launched in 2016 and we have continued to invest. So we have a lot of content from the United States, the UK and Spain. We are developing our Indian content here,” Hastings said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, according to media reports. "This year and next year, we will spend about Rs 3,000 crore developing content and you will start to see a lot of stuff hit the screens," he added.

    He also added that top performing Netflix shows from India include Sacred Games, Little Things and Delhi Crime. Talking about content made in India and watched by the world, Reed highlighted Mighty Little Bheem, which since its release in 2019,  has been watched by 27 million households around the world, including Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

    Since launching here four years ago, Netflix has licensed hundreds of Indian films and shows, and invested in over 40 Netflix originals – almost all of which have been commissioned by Indian executives who live locally, know the culture and speak the language. These originals have been shot in over 20 cities across the country, including Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata, and Kochi.

    "The next 5-10 years will be the golden age of television. You are seeing unbelievable and unrivalled levels of investment. Partially from the global companies like Apple, Amazon, Disney and Viacom. There are all investing here in India as well as in the UK and the US. We are seeing more content made than ever before. It's a great export,” he said.

    "The internet has the possibility to really transform the Indian content market to be export-driven. So far, we have had some amazing successes. Sacred Games travelled around the world. We are really excited about those stories," he added.

  • Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on global opportunity, subscriber addition and competition

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on global opportunity, subscriber addition and competition

    MUMBAI: With Disney all set to enter the direct-to-consumer business with its streaming app, Netflix missing its subscriber addition forecast globally along with losing subscribers in the domestic market is likely to be trouble. Although stocks of the FANG company stumbled as an aftermath of the Q2 result, Netflix is confident of getting back on track in the next quarter. Talking to investors in an earnings call after the Q2 result, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also showed confidence in global subscriber additions, upcoming competition and the positive impact of streaming war.

    Here are the edited excerpts:

    Global opportunity:

    Well, we do wonder, in the fullness of time, can we be as big as YouTube? YouTube is 7x larger than us roughly in viewing hours, and a phenomenal service. Of course, it's free. So the real question is can we produce enough content that people are willing to pay for? If you look at benchmarks, it's about 700 million households that pay for television outside of China, so that would be kind of the equivalent of the US, 100 million, so that's one established market.

    Now, do we have enough content in each of those countries? Most of that is local content that gets consumed. But the internet is capable of some very large customer bases, as you, I'm sure, know well. So we'll just take it year-by-year and try to have our net adds continue to grow. We still think our net adds this year will be larger than last year. We'll keep pushing on that. And what we want to do is just grow the net adds every year and then the future takes care of itself.

    Streaming War:

    It's never been a better world for talent. They get to bid themselves off between us, Disney, Amazon, etc. So there's a real battle for who will pay for content around the world, but it's not a zero-sum competition. I think everybody gets that people will subscribe to multiple shows. Add wage — most Netflix employees are HBO subscribers. We love the content they do and that spurs us to want to be even better. So it's a great competition that helps grow the industry. And the advantage of having something catchy like streaming wars is it draws more attention. And because of that, people, consumers shift more quickly from linear TV to the streaming TV.

    Product partnerships for Stranger Things:

    Well, we're monetising it today in more membership growth. The focus is to get more people excited about Stranger Things. So they join Netflix. They tell their friends about it. So this year, we'll add about $5 billion of incremental subscription revenue, which is almost all of the gross margin, and that's faster than any entertainment company has grown in the history of the world. So what we want to do is keep that engine going, keep that subscriber engine going and not get distracted with alternative revenue sources which just don't add up when you're growing $5 billion a year. So the core focus is to create all these merchandising opportunities, tie-ins, touch points so that you feel the Stranger Things energy so that more people join. So together, as we do monetise all that, it's just we're monetising it through our giant engine rather than through little sidecar vehicles.

  • Netflix testing Rs 250 mobile-only subscription in India

    Netflix testing Rs 250 mobile-only subscription in India

    MUMBAI: Giant video-streaming service Netflix is believed to be experimenting with a mobile-only subscription for a select group of users in India. Rs 250 per month is what the streamer is hoping to charge for its mobile-only plan, half of its Rs 500 entry-level subscription price in the country.

    According to ET Tech, subscribers can only consume standard definition (SD) content on one mobile or tablet screen at a time. This plan, however, is not part of Netflix’s currently monthly subscriptions that cost users Rs 500-800 depending on the nature of the plans.

    “We will be testing different options in select countries where members can watch Netflix on their mobile device for a lower price and subscribe in shorter increments of time. Not everyone will see these options and we may never roll out these specific plans beyond the tests," a Netflix spokesperson said commenting on the development.

    Last year, Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters, during earnings call, had said that the company would experiment with their pricing strategy in India in a bid to draw more users to its platforms.

    Competing against the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, ZEE5 among others, Netflix will remain the most expensive streaming service in India.

    Earlier this week, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had described the Indian OTT market as ‘super competitive’ and ‘exciting’.

    "There is also lots happening on Amazon, and on Hotstar, which is now going to be owned by Disney… It's a super competitive, exciting market,” he said.

    One of the hallmarks of the Indian market, Hastings highlighted, is the ongoing telecom revolution triggered by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. According to him, there is "nothing more impressive in the world than what Reliance Jio has done in the past four years in India" to democratise internet accessibility.

    This latest move by Netflix, in a sense, hopes to grab a share of the consumer’s attention and wallet by riding on Jio’s disruptive force.­

  • Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on competition and content creation in India

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on competition and content creation in India

    MUMBAI: With Amazon flexing its muscle and soon to be Disney-owned Hotstar in the fray, the Indian OTT market is super competitive and exciting, feels Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. "There is also lots happening on Amazon, and on Hotstar, which is now going to be owned by Disney… It's a super competitive, exciting market,” he was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.

    One of the hallmarks of the Indian market, Hastings highlighted, is the ongoing telecom revolution triggered by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. According to him, there is "nothing more impressive in the world than what Reliance Jio has done in the past four years in India" to democratise internet accessibility.

    The streaming giant’s boss is of the opinion that these are good times for Indian content creators.

    "If you were an Indian content creator (earlier), there were very few places to go, and now there are many places to go. So, people are pouring in. There are amazing amounts of stories that are coming up,” he said.

    The 58-year-old is pleased with his company’s performance in India.

    "There has been tremendous traction… Everyone has been talking about Lust Stories and Sacred Games. We have Delhi Crime coming out this week. So, there's lots that's happening on the original front,” he added.

    Hastings pointed out that the Indian market has room to do different kinds of stories.

    "We try to tell the best stories we can. Sometimes they are ready, sometimes they take longer. It really varies by that. There are so many streaming services, but if you think about how many networks there are on cable in India, there are way more than 34. I think there's a lot of room to do different kinds of stories," he stated.

    Hastings also commented on the self-regulatory Code of Best Practices that Netflix and others have signed.

    "None of us want strict government regulation on content. We can be flexible and can protect creative freedom a little better if we are a little bit proactive," he explained.

    On the online censorship front, there is not much activity, Hastings noted.

    "It's just before the elections. We are hoping the talk moves on because it's a challenging time to talk about anything like that. So in general, people around the world…and I am talking about adults, not children, want to watch what they want to watch, and the Internet represents that freedom,” he said.