Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos is set to receive $40 million in compensation next year, while Chairman and Co-CEO Reed Hastings stands to make north of $34 million. Netflix disclosed the annual salaries and stock option allocation for 2022 for its executive officers in an SEC filing Tuesday.
On the eve of a planned employee walkout at the streaming giant — organized by trans and LGBTQ+ staffers, content creators and allies — Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed numerous points related to recent jokes from comedian Dave Chappelle that have incensed the trans community and been labeled as harmful.
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos sent a lengthy missive to the entire company following the mounting controversy around The Closer, a new original special from comic Dave Chappelle.
Conceding that the transition to video streaming has resulted in a scarcity of available program performance data, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told interviewer Kara Swisher during Monday’s Code Conference in Beverly Hills that Netflix is going to make an effort to change things. “We’re trying to be more transparent with the market and talent and everybody,” Sarandos said. “It’s a big black box for everybody.”
Netflix said that Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, the streaming company’s co-CEOs, will each earn $34.65 million for 2021, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount is unchanged from the compensation they were scheduled to get in 2020.
A grand jury in Tyler County, Texas, has indicted Netflix on charges of “disseminating lewd material” for distributing the French film Cuties. The indictment, which specifically names company co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, accuses the Netflix of “the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
Exclusives
Ted Sarandos has been promoted at Netflix to Co-CEO, sharing the title with Reed Hastings, who also serves as co-founder. Sarandos joins the company’s board of directors as a result. “Ted has been my partner for decades. This change makes formal what was already informal — that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix,” Hastings said.
Sarandos: How Production Can Safely Resume
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos writes in the Los Angeles Times: “While it’s still in the early days, here’s what we’ve learned so far. For one thing, circumstances vary significantly country by country, and even city by city. So, directors and showrunners need to work with local health authorities to adopt safeguards that take account of the situation on the ground. There is no one size fits all.”
Reed Hastings, the streaming giant’s founder, CEO, president and chairman of the board, tallied $38.6 million in 2019, according to an SEC filing — a $2.5 million increase from the previous year. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos saw a $5.1 million bump to $34.7 million.
Netflix’s two top execs, CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos, will each see their pay rise to more than $34 million in 2020, according to the company’s filing with the SEC on Monday. Both are set to make $34.7 million next year, which would represent a 10% pay increase from the $31.5 million each earned this year.
The streamer disclosed in a regulatory filing Dec. 28 that its top executive, CEO Reed Hastings, could make as much as $31.5 million during the upcoming year. That compares with the up to $29.4 million he stood to receive for his work in 2018. Hastings’ 2019 pay package is made up of just $700,000 in salary and as much as $30.8 million in stock options. Content chief Ted Sarandos will also see his compensation go up in 2019, matching Hastings’ $31.5 million potential total.
Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos knows that big players such as Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia are coming after his business — and he’s not worried about it. The streaming behemoth saw it coming seven years ago when it began aggressively pursuing original programming of its own instead of depending solely on acquisitions from the TV and movie production studios.
Sarandos: Netflix To Spend More On Originals
A week-and-a-half after Netflix revealed a slowdown in subscriber growth, Ted Sarandos took the stage Wednesday at the TV industry’s summer press tour to talk about an area in which the streamer is growing at a rapid clip: original programming. The chief content officer used his platform in front of the Television Critics Association to reveal that he plans to spend more than the already sky-high $6 billion that Netflix has allocated for originals and acquisitions.
NATPE Taps Netflix’s Sarandos As Moderator
The Netflix content exec will host a conversation with television legends Norman Lear and Quincy Jones on Jan. 20 during this year’s annual conference and marketplace.
Netflix Eyes 20 Original Series A Year
As Netflix continues to expand internationally, CEO Ted Sarandos said he wants to offer as many as 20 original scripted series per year as he sat in conversation with Netflix-friendly creators Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) and Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) on Wednesday at NATPE.
NATPE Honors Six With Tartikoff Awards
At the 12th anniversary Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards on Wednesday evening, Jay Leno, the last of the half dozen honorees to appear, spoke from the heart about what Tartikoff had meant to him. Tartikoff, who died in 1997 at age 48, had been head of NBC Entertainment when Leno was first starting his career, back when the comedian first appeared on The Tonight Show, which then starred Johnny Carson.
Netflix Determined Not To Release Ratings
Netflix remains committed to not releasing data regarding the viewership of its shows “for as long as we can,” Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told journalists at the kickoff of the semi-annual TV Critics Association press tour today. The streaming service has irritated reporters with its unwillingness to issue information regarding the metrics it uses to gauge the success of shows, and Sarandos held to that line, saying, “There’s no real business reason for us to report those numbers.”
Netflix has slashed executive pay for CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, though both have the opportunity to earn far more in total compensation through stock options. Hastings’ salary will be cut from $3 million per year to $1 million. This comes just one year after the board upped Hastings’ salary by $1 million, according the company’s regulatory filing on Monday.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s content guru, isn’t your grandpa’s “Mr. Television.” He’s not content to sit still with HBO and other heavy hitters in pursuit.
Tartikoff Awards For Blue, Leno, Sarandos
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Jay Leno, Entertainment Tonight alum Linda Bell Blue and producer Jonathan Murray are among the industry notables set to receive the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards on Jan. 21 at the NATPE confab in Miami Beach.
Sarandos: Netflix Is TV’s Good Friend
Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, says his service is helping attract viewers to broadcast and cable shows. “What’s really exciting for us is to bring new people to a show,” Sarandos says. “More people watched the first season of Mad Men on Netflix than on AMC.” And with its recent foray into original programming, it hopes to expand its role.
Netflix: We Are Content Community’s Friend
Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos says he will make deals with HBO. He also says that he sees market solutions for net neutrality.
