Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos says the streaming giant works far enough ahead on delivering new shows, that it doesn’t expect to see any disruption in programming on the service over the next few months.
Netflix remains one of the few streaming giants still pumping out series with several launches still slated for April and May. Where its users may feel the pipeline drying up is later in the year with fewer new shows popping up.
Speaking with CNN’s Reliable Sources this week (via THR), Sarandos says the current global situation has been a “massive disruption” as every one of their productions around the world has shut down. So what does that mean in the immediate future:
“What’s happening now is we work pretty far ahead with delivering all the episodes of our shows at once so no disruption over the next few months, maybe later in the year as physical production is not operational.”
It also hasn’t stopped personnel for moving forward on the creative process where they can, such as a “virtual 40-person table” which took place last week for the new season of “Big Mouth”. Sarandos says:
“The first thing we did is make sure that everybody on those sets, everybody on those crews knew that they were being paid for the next two weeks, as if they were there. We sent all of our employees at home. So, we have all of our employees at home, even in roles that are not necessarily conducive to doing that. So, we’re trying to keep things business as usual as we can, in a time of great uncertainty for some people. We hope this brings them some economic comfort, if not emotional comfort.”
Understandably, Sarandos also says that viewing of the service is up:
“You can imagine, all viewing is up. It’s up on Netflix, on CNN on television in general. The system has been very robust and can help out a lot of people. People certainly are watching a lot more Netflix. As Governor (Andrew) Cuomo said so beautifully the best thing you can do is stay at home we are trying hard to help… We’re proud to be part of that, which is trying to make that stay-home experience a little more bearable for folks, a little more enjoyable, even, and give some families something to gather around, something for people to talk about, making us feel a little less isolated while we are being physically isolated.”
With people either working from home or in self isolation, Netflix has become one of the most valuable services around the globe at the moment. April will see the arrival of all six seasons of “Community,” more seasons of “Kingdom” and “The Last Kingdom,” and a ton of film additions including “The Matrix” trilogy, the “Lethal Weapon” films, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “Taxi Driver,” “Deep Impact,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Road to Perdition,” Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes,” “The Hangover” and “The Social Network”.
