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Netflix’s Six-Point Crisis Playbook

Ted Sarandos
Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
May 30, 2022

In the weeks since the Great Netflix Correction, Ted Sarandos has taken it on the chin from the business media that fawned over Netflix for a decade. Still, it’s a bit surprising that he so quickly ran to Maureen Dowd for his more than 4,500 word quasi-mea culpa. Maybe it helped? I surveyed a bunch of savvy media experts and got wildly different responses. 

“Smart choice,” one veteran texted me. “Better for him to be on his front foot,” said another. “Was time to stop taking shit,” said yet another. “He covers a lot of territory here,” one said, meaning that when Ted is asked in the months ahead about Dave Chappelle or the advertising pivot or even the fate of lieutenants Scott Stuber and Bela Bajaria, he can now point to this piece, which sort of backs them (“I would say we are always reaching for the highest performance,” co-C.E.O. Reed Hastings says, “but our content is not why the current slowdown is happening”) while leaving room for personnel changes if needed.