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Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters will become co-CEOs of Netflix while Reed Hastings steps down to become chair after a ‘tough year’.
Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings has announced he is stepping down from his role to become executive chair of the company.
His co-CEO Ted Sarandos will now be joined by Greg Peters, Netflix’s chief operating officer, to lead the company as co-chief executives.
Hastings said he has “increasingly delegated the management of Netflix” to Sarandos and Peters over the past two and a half years. They were both promoted to their current roles in July 2020.
“It was a baptism by fire, given Covid and recent challenges within our business. But they’ve both managed incredibly well, ensuring Netflix continues to improve and developing a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue and earnings growth,” he said.
“So the board and I believe it’s the right time to complete my succession.”
The moves comes as Netflix reports a surprise surge in subscribers over the holiday season. The streaming service added 7.66m new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2022 – significantly higher than the expected 4.57m. Quarterly revenue stood at $7.85bn.
“2022 was a tough year, with a bumpy start but a brighter finish,” the company said in a letter to shareholders. “We believe we have a clear path to re-accelerate our revenue growth: continuing to improve all aspects of Netflix, launching paid sharing and building our ads offering.”
Netflix noted that shows such as Wednesday, its third most popular series ever, and Harry & Megan, its second most popular documentary ever, helped increase subscriber numbers and revenue.
Troll became Netflix’s most popular non-English film while Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery took fourth place in the service’s list of most popular films ever.
Alongside the shake-up in the highest echelons of the company, there have also been changes in leadership on the content side of things. Bela Bajaria has been appointed chief content officer while Scott Stuber takes over as chair of Netflix Film.
“We start 2023 with renewed momentum as a company and a clear path to reaccelerate our growth. I’m thrilled about Ted and Greg’s leadership, and their ability to make the next 25 years even better than the first,” added Hastings.
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