Netflix Meeting a ‘Complete Nothing-Burger,’ Despite Pay Structure Change Rumors
Netflix made a large presentation to managers and agents on Wednesday, but it was mostly intended to tout the streamer’s dominance.
Netflix has managed to get on the wrong side of several major Hollywood talent agencies, but not at all in the way we had originally expected. On Wednesday, Netflix called a meeting of top agents and managers, at which the attendees thought they would be given more information on the streamer's plan to change how it pays out for TV shows and movies. But according to Deadline, the summit turned into nothing more than a self-congratulatory exercise for the world’s largest streaming service.
Key Details:
- Netflix has reportedly been planning to start basing its payouts on viewership success.
- Executives from the streamer refused to answer questions about those potential changes.
- Instead, Netflix touted its global subscriber count, talked about its marketing arm, and discussed other previously-known information.
It’s hard to blame attendees for feeling that they’ve been bamboozled by Netflix. Reports emerged earlier this week that the streamer was planning to make a shift in payment models, and would reward creators for making more popular shows on the back end rather than paying a lump sum upfront for shows and movies.
Most of the assembled talent reps and executives from major Hollywood businesses thought that was the topic of discussion when they showed up to Wednesday’s gathering. Instead, it became little more than a chance for Netflix to boast about its global dominance.
“It was a total waste of time,” one invitee said about the meeting. Another called it a “complete nothing-burger.”
“It was a room full of high-level agents and managers, and they didn’t give us anything,” said the most loquacious of the detractors. “It wasn’t even a sales pitch that clients should keep going to Netflix because they would make better deals, it was that they should keep going to Netflix because it is so dominant.”
So What DID Netflix Talk About?
Instead of giving the assembled guests the information they thought they had come to hear, Netflix took the opportunity to give participants a lot that they already knew. That includes the proud claim of Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria that Netflix now has 280 million subscribers; Netflix counted 277.65 million global customers in its last quarterly earnings report, which was handed down in July. Bajaria estimated that with that level of subscriptions, the total viewer reach could conservatively be estimated at 600 million people worldwide.
Netflix executives declined to answer questions about the talent payment changes they’ve reportedly been thinking about, saying only about the rumors, “Don’t believe everything you read in the press.” The only way in which the subject was broached at all was a refresher from Netflix on how it gauges a show to be successful based on production costs up front and views on the back end.
Range Media Partners CEO Peter Micelli was, at the very least, impressed with aspects of the presentation.
“What they are doing in terms of reach, how a piece of content can go global, there is nothing else of that magnitude in our business,” he said. “They are building a community for each piece of content and figuring how to reach that community in a way that there is a conversation. Taking that conversation and converting it to anticipation.”
Perhaps the audience should have paid more attention to the title of the presentation, “Netflix Explained.” That’s essentially all the information they got from the streamer, though they came into the meeting expecting far more.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.