Netflix Drops 1,000 Staff to Chase Growth

Netflix said it will cut 1,000 jobs globally, its steepest reduction since 2022, with most of the losses falling in human resources, legal, product and technology teams.

In an email to staff, co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters framed the move as an exercise in discipline rather than distress, saying Netflix would keep investing in “high-impact areas” to improve the service and push growth and innovation. The company also told employees it remains on track to meet its financial forecasts.

That is the corporate language of a business still making money but less satisfied with its pace. Sarandos said at the Bloomberg Screentime summit that Netflix was “not growing as fast as I want us to”, a neat sentence for the pressure facing a company that already won the first phase of the streaming wars and now has to justify what comes after victory.

The cuts arrive as the industry looks less like a land grab and more like consolidation. BBC News notes Paramount has merged with Warner Bros, owner of HBO, in a $110bn deal. At the same time, Netflix is competing not just with subscription rivals but with platforms that steal time rather than fees: YouTube and TikTok are where attention goes when viewers do not feel like committing to a prestige box set.

Netflix has tried to widen the business through advertising and gaming while continuing to commission new shows, including the underwater mystery series “Below”, which BBC News said is among its most popular titles. But Ross Benes, a senior analyst at eMarketer, told the BBC the company still has not found a major new revenue line and remains heavily dependent on subscriptions that may be nearing a ceiling.

Managers are set to tell affected employees whether their roles have been cut. Netflix is due to report results on 20 October.