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Alison Herman TV Critic From the moment Reed Hastings tuned into an earnings call wearing a green-and-white tracksuit, it was clear Netflix may have learned the wrong lessons from the success of “Squid Game.” In 2021, the South Korean drama — created, written and directed by auteur Hwang Dong-hyuk — became a surprise global sensation with a grim and violent allegory of capitalism exploiting the desperate many for the enjoyment of a wealthy few. Hastings, a rich and powerful tech founder, was closer to one of the titular game’s masked spectators than a contestant risking their life for a chance at the prize, though he didn’t seem to see the irony.

Netflix said today it plans to award its co-chief operating officers identical compensation packages for 2024 worth $40 million each.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix‘s board has approved 2024 pay packages of its top execs, with co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters each to receive compensation worth $40 million. For Sarandos, it’s the same level of pay he is set to receive in 2023.

Netflix’s multi-year deal with Skydance Animation, which shifted over from Apple TV+, “helps complement the work that we’re doing” with original animated fare, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said.

Netflix said it’s working on modifications to CEO pay policies after a majority of shareholder voting not to approve executive compensation in a non-binding vote at the last annual meeting. The company had said as much earlier this year.

Canal+ Chairman and CEO Maxime Saada has recalled how he travelled to Los Gatos with an olive branch six years ago.

After spearheading Netflix‘s entry into advertising last year, veteran exec Jeremi Gorman has exited the company.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Independent cinema is in trouble.That’s according to Bob Berney, CEO of Picturehouse, John Sloss, founder and CEO of Cinetic Media, and Eugene Hernandez, director of the Sundance Film Festival and head of public programming. During an Oct.

The future of working with streamers was on the table at the Zurich Summit on Saturday amid talk that the content bubble has burst as key markets such as the U.S. reach saturation point.

EXCLUSIVE: “The UK’s role in the media multiverse” will take up plenty of airtime at the RTS Cambridge Convention, according to Theresa Wise, as the great-and-the-good of the TV industry prepare to gather for the biannual get-together.

Sean Gunn, who played Stars Hollow’s eccentric wannabe filmmaker Kirk on “Gilmore Girls”, is among the actors who hit the picket lines on Friday after SAG-AFTRA voted to strike.

behind only Simon Property Group, which was among the 1.5% of companies who asked shareholders to weigh in on executive compensation packages having rejected the “Say on Pay” proposals.The pay packages included total compensation for co-CEO Ted Sarandos, former co-CEO Reed Hastings and Greg Peters, who was elevated from COO to co-CEO earlier this year. In 2022, Hastings earned $51.1 million in total compensation last year while Sarandos brought in $50.3 million and Peters received $28.1 million. Last week’s rare dissent came days after WGA West president Meredith Stiehm sent an open letter to Netflix and Comcast shareholders urging them to reject the pay proposals ahead of the votes, pointing to the intensifying impact of the guild’s strike, which recently entered into its second month.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In a symbolic rebuke of Netflix’s top executives, company shareholders voted against approving the compensation packages of leaders including co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. At the streamer’s June 1 annual shareholders meeting, investors failed to approve the proposed exec pay packages for 2023. But the vote was a non-binding “say on pay” measure, meaning Netflix’s board can disregard the result. The vote came after the WGA had urged investors to vote against Netflix’s exec compensation measures in a letter Tuesday. “While investors have long taken issue with Netflix’s executive pay, the compensation structure is more egregious against the backdrop of the strike,” WGA West president Meredith Stiehm wrote in the letter to Netflix shareholders.

Netflix shareholders declined to support a proposal affirming the pay packages for top executives during a vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.

Writers Guild of America is opening up a new front against the studios as its strike continues, as WGA West President Meredith Stiehm sent an open letter to Netflix and Comcast shareholders calling on them to reject the pay packages for those companies’ top executives that are up for a vote. Netflix is set to have its annual shareholders meeting on June 1, with Comcast, parent company of NBCUniversal, holding its shareholder meeting on June 7.

Angus Finney As Europe’s multitude of film agencies prepare to plant their flags atop Cannes’ pavilions, a host of public servants are mindful that they face an existential crisis in the bruising battle for cinema’s hearts, minds and future political support. Under attack from Ministers of Culture (Germany), losing top box office status in their home markets (France) and most recently an acknowledgment of institutional racism at the British Film Institute (U.K.), the guardians of the European filmmaking ecosystem valued at more than $3 billion is facing a reckoning like never before. The timing is acute. A powerful array of streaming platform and studio-driven streaming commissioners have been muscling into Europe for a long time. The scale of commissioning engulfing larger European territories was illustrated by Netflix’s recent revelation that it will have spent $6 billion in just four years in the U.K. by the end of 2023. And in a recent talk that will have jangled the nerves of European funders, Netflix chair Reed Hastings claimed that the streamer is the “biggest builder of cross-European culture” as European subscribers overtook North American ones with 76.7 million next to 74.3 million revealed in the streamers’ last quarter results.

Bob Chapek, Former CEO 2022 Chapek compensation: $24.2M/ -25.5% Bob Iger, CEO 2022Iger compensation: $15M/ -67.3% Median employee compensation: $54,256 Chapek pay ratio to median employee: 446 So long, Mr. Chapek! It was a rocky time atop the Magic Kingdom for the Disney chief, who was booted from his post in November just months after the company’s board renewed his contract. During Chapek’s tenure Wall Street soured on Disney’s spending on its streaming service, to say nothing of a near employee revolt over his stumbling response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Charlie Collier, who segued last fall from lengthy exec stints at Fox Corp. and AMC Networks to a top post at Roku, took the stage at his first NewFronts pitch Tuesday to invite advertisers to bring their messages to the stream.

unable to reach a deal in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.The guild has shared an infographic that outlines the $773 million in combined salary that eight major Hollywood studio CEOs made in 2021. They include Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel ($308.2 million), Warner Bros.

filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Netflix’s executive chairman and former co-CEO Reed Hastings raked in approximately $51.1 million in total compensation last year, up from the $40.8 million he received in 2021. Hastings’ package included a $650,000 base salary, approximately $49.4 million in stock options and $1 million in other compensation.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Reed Hastings, who stepped aside as co-CEO of Netflix in January, and co-chief Ted Sarandos both saw double-digit increases in their compensation packages for 2022, with their total pay topping $50 million each. Hastings’ total pay last year was $51.07 million, $49.4 million of which was in stock option awards, up 25% from 2021, the streamer disclosed in its 2023 proxy statement Friday. Sarandos’ pay jumped 31.5% in 2022, to $50.3 million, comprising $20 million base annual salary, $28.5 million in stock options and $1.79 million in other compensation (including $1.43 million in residential security costs). In stepping down as co-CEO, Hastings will take a huge pay cut: For 2023, as executive chairman, he’s eligible to receive a $500,000 base salary plus $2.5 million in stock options, according to a Netflix 8-K filing with the SEC. In the co-CEO role, he stood to make $34.7 million this year, mostly in stock.

Reed Hastings saw his total pay package jump by about $10 million last year to $51 million on a new stock option grant. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos pulled in total compensation of $50.3 million, up from $38.2 million, also on a bigger option grant.

As part of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Netflix is one of those companies currently at the table negotiating with the Writers Guild over a new deal.

Netflix delivered a mixed set of results for the first quarter, edging Wall Street analysts’ estimates for earnings per share but falling short in other key categories.

“We all have to become a bit more Scandinavian,” Beta Film MD Moritz von Kruedener told a Series Mania audience this morning.

EXCLUSIVE: The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has responded to Reed Hastings’ claim Netflix is the “biggest builder” of cross-country culture in the EU.

13D and 13G reports. For those outside of the inside-baseball world of corporate finance: Forty-five days out from the end of the year, companies are required to have filed 13D and 13G disclosure forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports are required for investors who amass 5% or more of a company’s total stock issue. Starting with this primer on how to monitor big-dollar investment bets, Variety will offer a quarterly survey of how the media and entertainment sector is faring among the world’s most sophisticated stock pickers.

The Oscar nominations this week set off a new round of speculation about corporate image: Does it matter that Netflix’s potential Oscar take had dropped to 16 from 36 in 2020?

Netflix stock closed the week at its highest level since last April, rising more than 8% Friday to end at $342.50 after the company reported strong subscriber growth and executed a smooth handoff atop its executive ranks.

Interesting news on the streaming front: Netflix reported its Q4 2022 earnings yesterday, and the platform outperformed its goal for new subscribers to close out the year. Variety reports that the numbers exceed Netflix’s target of 4.5 million additions with 7.66 new subscribers.