Netflix UK Boss Says She Will Not Change Course When Streamer Stops Reporting Subs Numbers

deadline.com:

Netflix UK will not be changing its commissioning course when the streamer stops reporting quarterly subs numbers, according to its programing chief.

Anne Mensah, who oversees a huge slate featuring the likes of Baby Reindeer and The Gentlemen, said “there is no secret” for producers when they pitch to Netflix, and that this will remain the same given the streamer’s fresh focus on profit over subs. “I can’t stress enough that [our commissioning strategy] is simply about how you get audiences to press play and stay,” she told the Creative Cities Convention in response to a question over Netflix’s decision to stop reporting quarterly subs numbers from next year. “Before I arrived the idea was how to put in place a team that is authentically ‘of the UK’ and show you have absolute commitment to staying here long term,” she added. “For me the content remains utterly key.” Mensah was speaking a week after Netflix used its Q1 results to reveal it will stop reporting quarterly subscriber numbers from next year, a huge change for the platform whose stock tends to get buffeted up or down by those numbers.

The streamer, which has pulled ahead of ailing rivals of late, added 9.3 million subscribers in the quarter ended March 31, reaching 269.6 million worldwide and outperforming expectations in other key areas.

Mensah wouldn’t be drawn on whether Netflix UK has been handed a budget boost given the recent success that has come amid a spate of big-budget international commissions.