When the CEO of a streaming giant like Netflix says something, people will naturally stand up and take notice. Netflix Chief Reed Hastings took full advantage of that platform to both promote his new book and address some of the hottest topics impacting the media today.
During a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, Hastings talked primarily about his new book No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. The book details Netflix's unique business culture and how those lessons could help future entrepreneurs replicate their success. He didn’t spend the entire interview promoting the book though and took some time to address Netflix’s push for diversity on the platform, the rush among streaming companies to land big-name talent and his company’s role in killing movie theaters.
The global pandemic fundamentally shifted the way everyone distracts themselves. With the outside world and human interaction now fraught with peril, more and more people are taking solace in Netflix, leading to skyrocketing subscription numbers. With the company hot as it is, this is the perfect time for a book about the company to come out. No Rules Rules is primarily about their cutthroat business culture that is sharply focused on innovation and pushes its employees toward that end. It’s an approach that is deemed a necessary given the number of challengers with deep pockets like Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock and Apple TV+ among others. Hastings told Vanity Fair though that the “biggest threat slash opportunity” is in things like video games, online sports, YouTube and TikTok.
With all the streaming platforms stepping into the game, acquiring talent for original content has now become a bidding war between companies. Several years ago the company made deals with famous producers like Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy among others. Not to mention the deal with Martin Scorcese and one that landed Meghan Markel and Prince Harry, and then there's Obama’s production company Higher Ground. Hastings sees this current frenzy of wheeling and dealing as temporary. He told Vanity Fair “Apple and Amazon, in addition to us, are pouring money in, so it’s a hot market for talent.… That’s what it takes to compete.”
The issue of diversity both within the company and among its broad portfolio of content also became a hot topic. In the wake of the George Floyd protests and a national awakening about racial diversity, Netflix (along with Hastings himself) dedicated more than $200 million to Black-owned businesses and historically Black businesses. There has also been a push within the company to get original content from creators like Ava DuVernay, Justin Simien, Spike Lee, and Rhimes, among others.
Despite this commitment to diversity, Netflix might not reliably back the creators on their platform. “We’re not trying to do ‘truth to power.’ We’re trying to entertain,” Hastings told Vanity Fair. He couched that rather harsh sentiment by saying that Netflix isn’t in the business of doing journalism. “There’s a lot of important things that real journalism has that we don’t have. But all entertainment is truth to power.… Whether that’s Ava [DuVernay’s] When They See Us or [Brazillian documentary] The Edge of Democracy.”
There are some fears that Netflix's rise and the global pandemic may accelerate the death of movies as a collective social experience. In that regard the company has always insisted that they never wanted to disrupt moviegoers, but the era of instant gratification on the internet will have an impact on long theater-only release windows.
Source: Vanity Fair