Ted Sarandos Named Co-CEO of Netflix as Streamer Reaches Nearly 193 Million Global Subscribers in Q2
Netflix announced today that Ted Sarandos has been named as the co-CEO of Netflix along with Reed Hastings as the streaming giant reached nearly 193 million global subscribers in their Q2 2020 earnings report.
“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 in a letter to shareholders.
The Q2 global subscribers figure is up 10 million from the nearly 183 million global subscribers they hit in Q1 2020, and even higher than the 167 million global subscribers and 61 million U.S. subscribers they reached in Q4 2019.
But in today’s letter, Netflix also stated that “growth is slowing as consumers get through the initial shock of Covid and social restrictions.”
In terms of content, Netflix said their “main business priority is to restart our productions safely and in a manner consistent with local health and safety standards” due to the pandemic and that they’re “slowly resuming productions in many parts of the world.”
Although Netflix remains the largest streamer, Disney+ has gained major traction since its launch last November and has proven to be a viable competitor. In April, the streaming service announced they surpassed 50 million paid subscribers globally, following their launch in India and eight Western European countries. Of the 50 million subscribers, approximately eight million of those come from their existing Hotstar service in India, which was rebranded Disney+ Hotstar for their April 3 launch.