Netflix needs bigger US hits, not a content strategy reset – Sarandos
By Jordan Pinto 21/10/2026
Little House on the Prairie was one Netflix US’s top-performing titles in Q3
Ted Sarandos has said the executive purge that took place at Netflix over the past week does not indicate a wholesale content strategy reset, but rather the pursuit of a stronger US programming slate.
Netflix last week let go chief content officer Bela Bajaria, replacing her with former Disney and Fox exec Peter Rice, in addition to cutting around 1,000 other jobs as it reacts to a sagging share price, slow viewership growth and a shortage of global hit shows and movies.
Speaking during the streamer’s third-quarter earnings call yesterday, co-CEO Sarandos said the US market is not currently driving the level of global hits that management hoped for, especially in comparison to the successes of some of its local-language programmes.
“There is no need for a fundamental shift in the strategy. We do need better execution in the US,” he said, adding that original content from markets including India, Latin America and the Nordics is “largely working.”
“We see titles across Latin America, EMEA and APAC driving engagement, subscriber growth, revenue and profit. Now, the US is also working; it’s just not growing as fast as it could or as fast as we’d like,” said Sarandos.
Using a baseball analogy, he added: “We had some really solid doubles and triples this year, but the other territories count on some of those titles being home runs, so that they’ll travel around the world.”
Sarandos said he believes Rice, who left Disney in 2022, will provide the antidote to this issue. “His creative instinct and his business acumen are remarkable. He’s really an at-scale, quality and volume operator, and he does it across every imaginable form of entertainment: network, prestige cable, streaming, theatrical and TV films, and live sports,” he said.
Netflix execs also addressed the rationale behind laying off around 6% of the workforce, with co-CEO Greg Peters characterising the cuts as positioning the streamer for future growth.
“The company needs a mandate that requires the whole organisation to ask hard questions about where we can be more efficient, and where we can make tough decisions about where we can trim or redirect how we’re investing,” he said.
“We do not take these decisions lightly, but we also believe we have a responsibility to make hard trade-offs in service of our members, our partners, our employees, our investors and, ultimately, our long-term growth. That was the simple thinking behind it and what motivated these recent changes.”
One of the bright points highlighted by Netflix is its partnership with TF1 in France. Peters said he is “very pleased with the early performance” of the agreement, which sees TF1’s live channels available directly through Netflix in France for no additional cost.
While it has not publicly released any data to illustrate how the partnership has performed to date, Netflix said the deal is growing its viewership in France as well as “supporting [TF1’s] value proposition.” Peters noted that he believes Netflix will be able to “replicate” this deal with other international partners.
In the third quarter, Netflix’s revenue grew 12% year-over-year to US$12.9bn. In all four of its major territories, it reported double-digit revenue growth, with the US and Canada (UCAN) increasing 11% to US$5.63bn while Europe, the Middle East and Africa also grew 11% to US$4.11bn. In Latin America, revenue grew 17% to US$1.6bn and in Asia Pacific rose 12% to US$1.54bn.
Across the company, net income rose to US$3.66bn in the quarter, compared with US$2.55bn a year ago. While its Q3 numbers were solid, its guidance for Q4 fell short of Wall Street expectations, prompting the stock to dip around 6% in after-hours trading. The stock is down around 44% compared with this time last year.
In the US, top-performing titles in Q3 included Death of the Pastor’s Wife (45 million views), The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare (38 million), The Last House (91 million views) and Little House on the Prairie (29 million). Netflix defines a ‘view’ as the total hours watched divided by the title’s runtime.
In the UK, the most-watched titles included season two of The Gentleman (33 million) and A Toxic Love Story (43 million), while others included Korea’s Our Sticky Love (22 million), Mexico’s My Daughter’s Father (23 million), Brazil’s Nando Between Two Worlds – A Sintonia Film (18 million), Sweden’s Blood Sacrifice (23 million) and France’s Elite Force (25 million).
Elsewhere, Netflix also sought to distance itself from any perception that it is trying to imitate YouTube or TikTok after signing a number of deals with creators in recent months. Some have interpreted these moves as an attempt to bring cheap, high-volume content on to the service as a somewhat desperate means of bolstering engagement.
In its Q3 letter to shareholders, Netflix said the “core of [its] service is delivering differentiated, exclusive, professionally produced series, films and live events,” with Sarandos later saying that 95% of its content spend is on its originals (including live sports) and licensed series, which he described as the “critical growth engine.”
