Reed Hastings: Last News

A Netflix shareholder has sued the streamer for violating securities law after slowing subscriber growth led to a sharp decline in the company’s stock price.

Space Force has been cancelled by Netflix after two seasons.The streaming platform announced that the Steve Carell-led comedy series, which he co-created with The Office showrunner Greg Daniels, will not be returning for a third run of episodes.This comes just two and a half months after the release of the second season, which has received middling to negative reviews from critics.A parody of ex-president Donald Trump’s genuine desire to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the US military, Space Force centres on the everyday failings and absurd antics of General Mark R. Naird (Carell) and his team as they launch various space-related operations.Alongside Carell, the show starred John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Tawny Newsome, Jimmy O.

David Zaslav and Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel scored nine-figure compensation packages, a Day-Glo illustration of the lengths that board rooms go to reward the men (and it is exclusively men) at the top. Those gaudy figures came largely in the form of stock options, which means the take-home pay could shrink if the market takes a nosedive, but both men are still among the most richly remunerated in this or any industry.

Netflix subscribers in the UK share passwords between friends and family, according to research.As reported by research firm Digital i (via the Guardian), it’s estimated at least 27 per cent of Netflix’s 14.9million subscribers in the UK, over four million accounts, share their accounts with other households. It’s believed the real figure, however, could be higher.Ali Vahdati, Digital i chief executive, said: “Our estimates came from analysing account activity, and we corroborated this with various other sources.

If you're still watching Netflix on your ex's roommate's account, that access may not last much longer: Netflix is considering cracking down on password sharing, according to a report from the Associated Press. The streaming platform may also add a new, lower-cost subscription tier supported by ads, similar to its rival Hulu's.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe finale of CNN+’s “Land of the Giants: Titans of Tech,” titled “The Netflix Effect,” launches Thursday, perfect timing for an entertainment industry that is both reeling amid Netflix’s shocking Q1 subscriber miss, poor second-quarter outlook and the wait to see if CNN+ can find its groove as quickly as it might need to in order to survive.Based on the “Land of the Giants” podcast from Vox Media’s Recode, the CNN+ docuseries explores the complicated histories of Meta (a.k.a. Facebook), Apple, Amazon, Google and now Netflix.

Zack Sharf Elon Musk weighed in on Netflix’s subscriber loss in the first quarter of 2022 by claiming “the woke mind virus” is making the streaming platform “unwatchable.” Netflix announced April 19 that it had lost 200,000 subscribers, marking the first time in 10 years the streamer has reported a loss in subscribers. Following the news, Netflix’s stock crashed to a four-year low.While Musk did not detail why Netflix shows are contributing to “the woke mind virus” that’s killing the streaming giant, he did agree with one follower who claimed that the “woke mind virus is the biggest threat to the civilization.” Musk replied, “Yes.”Another follower wrote to Musk, “It’s not just Netflix.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix shares plummeted to their lowest point since December 2018 as investors reacted to the streamer’s first subscriber loss in more than a decade — bringing years of booming growth to a screeching halt.The stock was below $254 per share in premarket trading Wednesday, down 27% from the previous closing price and sinking to a more than three-year low. That came after Netflix posted a Q1 loss of 200,000 subscribers and projected that it will lose another 2 million subs in Q2, prompting several analyst downgrades.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNetflix has held Madison Avenue at arm’s length for years. Now, the popular streamer wants to draw the advertising industry in a tighter embrace.After years of resisting the prospect of running commercials, Netflix signaled on Tuesday that it’s ready to consider launching an ad-supported tier of its service, which has lured traditional TV viewers with ad-free series like “Stranger Things” and “Ozark” and commercial-free movies like “Don’t Look Up.” Figuring out an ad strategy could take months, said Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-CEO, during an investor meeting, “but think of us as quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice.”The company announced its intention to court commercials just weeks before the start of the industry’s annual “upfront” ad sales season, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for the next programming cycle.

A crew of sober Netflix execs said a password-sharing crackdown on the army of 100 million viewers who use the service for free is front and center and being tested but could take about a year to roll out, and it’s not clear what it will look like.

Netflix is preparing to launch a cheaper subscription plan in the next couple of years.

Netflix has long been asked whether it would eventually move into live sports.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix, after years of insisting it would stick solely to subscription-only plans, is finally open to experimenting with lower-cost ad-supported packages, co-CEO Reed Hastings said on the company’s Q1 earnings interview.The company expects to figure out its strategy in ad-supported streaming over the next year or two, Hastings said, “but think of us as quite open to us offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice.”“Those that have followed Netflix know that I’ve been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,” Hastings said. “But as much as I’m a fan of that, I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice.

Netflix has released a first trailer for erotic thriller 365 Days: This Day - the sequel to the dramatic cliffhanger of the controversial 365 Days.The film is one of two sequels currently in production, adapted from a book trilogy by Polish author Blanka Lipińska. In the sequel - which fans begged for - Laura (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) and Massimo (Michele Morrone) are reunited, but their relationship is jeopardised by his criminal family and a new, mysterious man who tries to win Laura's trust.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorReed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, the two top executives at Netflix, saw their overall pay packages drop a bit in 2021 — but they still raked in tens of millions each.Hastings’ total compensation package for 2021 was worth $40.8 million, including $39.7 million in stock grants and $650,000 in salary, according to the company’s 2022 proxy statement, filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s down 6% from the year prior for the co-founder and co-CEO of Netflix.Sarandos, who serves as co-CEO and chief content officer, earned $38.2 million last year, comprising $20 million in annual salary and $17.1 million in stock — a 2.7% drop from 2020.For 2022, Sarandos is set to receive $40 million in compensation and Hastings stands to make north of $34 million.

Backed against the wall, Netflix wants a Texas District Attorney stopped from hitting the streamer with child pornography charges over the coming-of-age drama Cuties.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix co-CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, an independent film producer, are personally donating $10 million to Tougaloo College, a historically Black college and university in Mississippi, and the school’s partnership with Brown University.Of the total, $5 million will fund scholarships at Tougaloo, in Jackson, Miss., and $5 million will establish the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Scholarship Fund at Brown, which is located in Providence, R.I. The gift is the largest ever to the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, which began in 1964 during the civil rights movement, and has connected more than 760 students, faculty and staff from both institutions through academic exchanges, fellowships, research projects and other initiatives.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Nasdaq Composite ended the trading day Monday down 9.49% from where it started at the beginning of January, marking its worst month since March 2020 — the start of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.The Nasdaq opened Jan. 3, the first trading day of 2022, at 15,732.50.

Tech stocks and the beleaguered Nasdaq jumped today in a rally led by streamers Spotify, Netflix and Roku. All have seen their shares pummeled, with Netflix in particular being hit by disappointing subscriber numbers last quarter and Spotify embroiled in a Joe Rogan controversy.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix and Spotify shares both popped Monday after Citi analysts upgraded both stocks to buy ratings, saying the market is undervaluing their longer-term upside.Shares of both companies climbed in early trading Monday, with Netflix up more than 6% and Spotify up more than 5%.In the previous 30 days, Netflix shares had slumped 32% and Spotify dropped 26% on investor concerns over slowing streaming subscriber growth. The selloff “suggests prevailing equity values don’t assume material sub growth or improving subscriber economics beyond 2023,” the Citi team led by Jason Bazinet wrote in a research note in upgrading the stocks from “neutral” to “buy.”“While Netflix and Spotify may see more modest sub growth, we see other top-line vectors,” the analysts wrote.

Netflix rose handily in after-hours trading Wednesday following news that Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has acquired more than 3.1 million shares to become a top-20 stockholder.