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- Netflix's co-CEO Ted Sarandos took shots at YouTube, saying his company is a better home for creators.
- Sarandos said Netflix can amplify YouTubers like Ms. Rachel for wider reach.
- He also contrasted Netflix's model for local programming with Disney's IP export model.
YouTube may have emerged as a big force in TV, but to hear it from Netflix's Ted Sarandos, his company is the real deal when it comes to rewarding top creators.
"I think we're a better monetization model," the co-CEO said during a conversation with Semafor editor in chief Ben Smith at New York's Paley Center on March 28.
Sarandos said YouTube doesn't pay creators upfront to make content, "so they're doing it all at their own risk." He noted uber-YouTuber MrBeast has lost money on content. "It's not a great recovery model," Sarandos said.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has pitched a round of funding for his business, including building a creator network. Sarandos later added: "If Beast had the audience that he had on Netflix, he wouldn't be raising money. He'd be giving away more money."
Despite Sarandos' comments about YouTube's payment system, MrBeast has shown that creators can also lose money on a Hollywood deal. MrBeast said he lost "tens of millions" on his Amazon show, "Beast Games."
Netflix has disrupted Hollywood and won the streaming wars, with more than 300 million global subscribers and a growing advertising business. But lately, YouTube has grabbed headlines with its growing share of the TV viewing pie and user-generated content model.
Netflix has been leaning into popular YouTubers. It picked up deals with the Sidemen, preschool educator Ms. Rachel, and the live dating show, "Pop the Balloon." Sarandos pointed to Ms. Rachel as an example of how Netflix can amplify YouTubers with its massive reach. He said she's ranked among Netflix's global top 10 shows every week since she came on the platform.
Sarandos compared YouTube to a "farm league" where creators can develop ideas. "Then they can come up, and we do something where we would take the financial risk," he said.
The CEO also said that while YouTube is a competitor for ad dollars, Netflix has a higher quality of viewership. People are coming there to watch, rather than waste time, he said.
Sarandos weighed in on Trump, Disney, and censorship
Sarandos also weighed in on a range of other topics during the event, including Netflix's plan for more live events, Disney's CEO search and business model, and programming in today's political era.
Whereas Amazon has been making live sports a bigger part of its offering, Sarandos said Netflix is focused on exclusive live events like the wildly popular Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight or Christmas Day NFL games.
"The scarcity of a big live event that everyone's watching at the same time, that's really rare and valuable," he said.
On the subject of censorship, Sarandos defended protecting controversial comedians like David Chappelle on free expression grounds.
"Preserving and protecting that role for comics is important," he said. "You may not like all the jokes but there's no denying this is one of the greatest comedians of our time."
Netflix has managed to avoid being caught in the political crosshairs as other media and entertainment companies have under President Donald Trump 2.0.
Asked if he's more careful with content decisions now that Trump is back in the White House and about his December dinner with Trump, Sarandos said, "No, we program exactly the same." He said "The Apprentice," a movie about Trump's formative years that Netflix and other streamers passed on, wasn't shunned because of fears of retribution. He said he thought it "was a good movie," but one of many that didn't pass buyers' criteria for the audience in relation to the cost. Sarandos took a dig at Amazon's deal for a coming Melania Trump documentary, saying, "For $40 million, I hope it's great."
Sarandos, who just marked 25 years at Netflix, also chimed in on Disney, which is home to the biggest succession story in entertainment today. The Netflix chief said he hasn't been approached for the CEO role and has "the best job in the world."
He also said he thinks Netflix has a winning formula globally compared to Disney's of taking big IP and exporting it around the world.
Netflix looks to make programming that's a hit locally and hopes it travels, like the UK's "Adolescence" or South Korea's "Squid Game."
"They want to see movies about, shows about, themselves, people they recognize in the language that they speak, in the neighborhoods that they've seen before," he said of viewers.
from All Content from Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/netflixs-ceo-says-its-better-for-creators-than-youtube-2025-3
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