Reed Hastings Says Netflix Is Biggest Builder Of Cross-European Culture
Reed Hastings just made a bold claim: That Netflix is the “biggest builder of cross-European culture.”
Speaking at Netflix’s European headquarters in Amsterdam today, the streamer’s founder and Executive Chairman said an “unexpected” outcome of pushing into European originals was how series and films from one country had performed in others.
“The amazing thing has been [seeing] how many Germans or Italians watch Spanish series,” he said. “We didn’t set out to do that, but we’ve biggest builder of cross-European culture in the EU. It’s partially because all the other networks are national networks who specialize in one language group. We specialize in connecting.”
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He quipped it was “ironic it’s a U.S. company” that achieved that level of soft power. “Or a U.S. company that’s now a Dutch company,” he added.
Netflix has been deep in discussions with the EU over content quotas in several European territories for several years now. Hastings has been critical of quotas several times in the past.
Hastings’ comments came during an event that brought together European policy makers, politicians and journalists today to highlight Netflix’s impact in EMEA. Last year, the region become the streamer’s biggest by subscribers with 76.7 million, overtaking the 74.3 million in the U.S. and Canada with its 76.7 million.
He appeared alongside Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters during a fireside chat moderated by Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands. Peters, who took on his new role in January, talked up the streamer’s history in risk-taking, while noting the challenges facing rival media businesses.
“The original concept was the easiest risk to take,” he said. “We were fortunate to see streaming and lead in it, and now we’re leading in engagement and revenue and profit, and everyone is trying to catch up. They have the very difficult job of turning down the traditional, historical business as they’re turning up on streaming. That’s very hard to manage.
“Our job is to not get complacent and not worry about past success inhibiting from taking new risk. We need to keep the risk appetite sharp and stay hungry.”
Hastings added: “Risk is like oxygen. You just thrive on it.”
New films
Earlier in the event, Netflix VP for Content, EMEA Larry Tanz unveiled a pair of comedy films from the Netherlands, The Dadchelor and Bad Boa’s.
The Dadchelor comes from Jon Karthaus and Daan van den Nouweland is the story of uber-responsible Mark, who is about to become a father and goes on a seemingly innocent ‘dadchelor’ weekend that spirals out of control and even puts the life of his friends on the line. Johnnywood and NRG Productions are attached.
Bad Boa’s is made in collaboration with popular Dutch comedian Jandino Asporaat, who also plays the lead role. The plot follows a well-meaning but barely effective BOA (extraordinary investigation officers who help the police to supervise local order and safety) who wants to make his neighborhood more liveable before he dies from a terminal illness. When he and his new partner accidentally land on a major drug bust, he sees it as an opportunity to take out a drug gang though the gang’s underworld boss doesn’t see them as a threat.
Huntu, a collaboration of production companies Het Huis van Asporaat and Kaap Holland Film, is producing.
Dutch Netflix films and series launching this year include suspense thriller Noise, rom-com The Wonder Weeks, and Happy Ending, the debut film of Joosje Duk, winner of Netflix’s New Voices competition in 2021, along with a second film from Shady El-Hamus and a prequel to feature film Undercover titled Ferry: The Series.
Tanz said of Netflix’s work in there EMEA region: “We’ve spent the last few years building to this point where we have very strong slates of films and series and incredible relationships with talent. Now we’re at this point where we have the people and an understanding of what audience love and want to see and we want to continue to grow that.
He said that Netflix EMEA members watch “an average of six genres a month,” pointing to data that shows those who like French detective mystery-adventure series Lupin also watch comedy, reality and thrillers. “What we need to do is bring them a great variety of films and series across all of these genres,” added Tanz.
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