Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos Says It’s ‘Still Pretty Cheap’

After years of maintaining its title as the world’s leading streaming service, Netflix will face some new, formidable competition with the arrival of Apple TV Plus and Disney+ later this year. The company’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, seems unfazed by an increasingly crowded field, telling the audience at SeriesFest in Denver, Colorado on Friday night that “it’s very likely” customers would welcome more options and subscribe to additional streaming services, instead of capping themselves at just two or three. 

Sarandos believes that each streaming service has something unique to offer viewers, creating a field where one service is never veering off into another’s lane. “The thing that’s interesting about all these upcoming services, as well as the services that are in the market today, is that mostly they have none of the same programming,” Sarandos said, per Deadline. “Nothing that’s on Disney+ is going to be on Netflix and nothing that’s on Netflix is going to be on the [Comcast and WarnerMedia services]. They’re going to be very unique.” 

Looking inward, Sarandos feels like Netflix is “still pretty cheap” despite its gradual monthly price increase. “I honestly think about it not in terms of price but in terms of value,” he said. “So if people are getting the value for the dollar, they should track each other really closely.” While the service has experienced four price hikes within the last nine years, Sarandos wants to reassure everyone that the company doesn’t have plans to venture outside its current model by incorporating advertising or bidding on streaming sporting events.  

Sarandos shed some light on Netflix’s successful current model of choosing their original programming. “Picking content and working with the creative community is a very human function,” Sarandos said. “The data doesn’t help you on anything in that process. It does help you size the investment…Sometimes we’re wrong on both ends of that, even with this great data. I really think it’s 70, 80% art and 20, 30% science.”