Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings announced Thursday that he will be stepping down as chief executive, handing over the reins of the streaming service to his longtime partner and co-CEO Ted Sarandos and the company’s chief operating officer, Greg Peters.
Sarandos and Peters will share the title of chief executive, with Hastings serving as executive chairman. The change is effective immediately and represents the culmination of decades of succession planning by the board. Both Peters and Sarandos were promoted in July 2020 at a challenging time for the company.
“It’s been a baptism of fire given Covid and the recent challenges in our business,” Hastings wrote in a blog post announcing his departure. “But they’ve both done incredibly well … so the board and I believe it’s the right time to finalize my succession.”
Hastings makes his exit on a high note. Netflix reported that it added 7.66 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street’s forecast of 4.57 million using “Harry & Megan” and “Wednesday” in the battle for streaming TV viewers.
The streaming video pioneer is under pressure from consumer reticence and competition Walt Disney, Amazon.com and others spend billions of dollars producing television shows and films for online audiences.
Netflix lost customers in the first half of 2022. It returned to growth in the second half of the year, but new customer additions are lagging behind the pace of recent years.
To spur growth, Netflix rolled out a cheaper, ad-supported option in 12 countries last November. It has also announced plans to crack down on password sharing.
The company’s global subscriber base reached 231 million at the end of December.
Audiences flocked to Addams’ family tale Wednesday, the third-most-watched series in Netflix history, the company said. murder mystery”glass onion‘ and the British royals documentary ‘Harry & Meghan’ were also hits during the quarter.
Net income fell to US$55 million (about Rs.4.46 billion), or 12 cents a share, from US$607 million (about Rs.4,932 billion) or US$1.33 per share (about Rs.100) last year . Revenue rose 1.9 percent to US$7.85 billion (around Rs.63,778 billion), in line with expectations.
Bela Bajaria, head of global television at Netflix, has been appointed chief content officer.
