One of the biggest issues with Netflix that nobody seems to talk about is how creators are remunerated for smash hit original projects, with two titles in particular gaining widespread traction recently.
Eric Andre admitted that he hadn’t made a penny from Bad Trip despite shepherding it through a decade in development prior to the comedy finding a huge audience on streaming. Similarly, The Night Agent ended up as one of Netflix’s biggest-ever episodic exclusives, but Shawn Ryan didn’t get any additional compensation for his efforts.
Korea seems to be the latest battleground, with local lawmakers and several industry figures demanding more profit-sharing as the company expands its reach in the nation. Content from the country has already proven itself to be a proven winner in terms of numbers, but the government has been forced to shell out $390 million to assist smaller networks and streamers to compete with Netflix taking up all the airspace.
At a summit in Seoul (via Deadline), Sarandos was faced with questions over the way profits will be distributed amongst creators, and he sounded as though he’s entirely on board.
“We definitely are guaranteeing that the creators and the producers and studios are all compensated very fairly. It’s a very competitive market, so any deal that we make we’re typically in competition with others for the same projects. So we compensate at the very top of the market.”
That was in response to a question from Byun Seung-min, the CEO of the production company behind military smash hit D.P., who came right out and said “content creators are concerned about how to distribute profits, I hope we can work together to double them,” so it’s up to Netflix to quite literally put its money where it’s mouth is.
Published: Jun 22, 2023 11:03 am