Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Says He Doesn’t Want a Writers Strike, but ‘We Do Have a Pretty Robust Slate’ If There Is

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix doesn’t want Hollywood writers to go on strike — but the streamer has a “pretty robust slate of releases” that will help it weather a walkout better than others, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said.

His comments, on the company’s first quarter 2023 earnings interview, come a day after Writers Guild of America members overwhelmingly passed a strike authorization vote, giving union leadership the power to call a strike once the contract expires on May 1. “We respect the writers, and we respect the WGA,” he said. “We couldn’t be here without them.

We don’t want a strike. The last time there was a strike, it was devastating to creators. It was really hard on the industry.

It was painful for local economies that support productions. And it was very, very, very bad for fans.” Sarandos said “we want to work really hard to make sure we can find a fair and equitable deal so we can avoid one.” That said, “if there is [a strike], we have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world [and] we could probably serve our members better than most… We do have a pretty robust slate of releases to take us into a long time.” Sarandos, asked about Netflix’s content spending, said the growth of that is tied to revenue growth.