 Hey, it's Ben Popper from The Verge. I'm here at CES with Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix. They made some big news today when they announced they were going global, adding 130 new countries. We're going to chat a little bit about what makes a great show and what makes a show go global. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you announced today. I'm Ted Sarandos. I'm the Chief Content Officer for Netflix. Today Netflix went live in 130 additional countries, making Netflix practically global. I say practically because it doesn't include China yet, but we're getting there. How much bigger is that than you were before? Is that twice as big? Well, geography, it's a lot bigger. Broadband households, it's an enormous leap forward, for sure. The countries that you're in, the people who are watching Netflix, are they going to get pretty much the same experience that I would in the U.S.? Is it going to vary by territory? Unfortunately, because where we sit today with this patchwork of availability because of existing deals and old contracts and those kind of things, there's a patchwork of availability around the world. So, Netflix today is different from one country to the next. What we're working for every year is that it becomes less and less fragmented and more global. All of our original series, as an example, we release globally at the same moment. More and more of our licensing dollars, let's say about 80 to 85 percent of our new licensing dollars are spent globally buying content for where we have global rights and lined up windows. It's going to take several years to do it, but every year, think about it as less and less fragmented. A lot of the shows that you produce are set in different parts of the world. Is the idea that you're going to begin producing content locally in all these different countries and trying to figure out what would work on a global level and then making those shows sort of the Netflix tent poles? Yeah, there's a version of that happening today, a show like Narcos. Narcos I think is probably the purest vision for global television we've seen yet. And I say that because we produce it with a French film company, the oldest film production company in France. It's shot in Colombia. It was created by a Brazilian, stars a Brazilian who speaks Spanish. The show is about 85 percent in Spanish and people love it in Germany. So I mean it's a real global show in almost every aspect of the creation, the production and its consumption as well. We are also doing shows that are more locally focused, but we think we'll find a large global audience for like Club de Cuervos is a show about a soccer team. We film in Mexico in Spanish. Most of the watching of that is in Spanish and in Latin America, but we do find U.S. Latino market loves the show as well. And that's getting bigger. We're filming a show in France right now called Marseille with Gerard Depardieu in French. It will be a great piece of French original programming that people will watch on Netflix around the world. I've heard you talk before about how House of Cards is really popular in China and I know that's a major market you guys want to move into. When you say it's really popular in China, is that people pirating it or getting it through a VPN? Who's watching it in China and how are they watching it? So House of Cards, the rights for House of Cards outside of Netflix are controlled by Sony and they sell them off to other SVOD and TVOD suppliers in China. So it's through legitimate channels. It's watched an enormous volume in China. So you know that the content would work there. What are the obstacles? What are the roadblocks to actually getting Netflix into China? I think it's a good example of the exciting opportunity for global television, which is you wouldn't think much about House of Cards as Chinese. We see things like Sense8 is a show that's kind of architected to be a global show. It's filmed in eight different cities at the same time with local talent in those cities with a big global filmmaker, you know, the Wachowskis creating the show. But what's been really exciting is to see things that are not necessarily engineered to be global that just organically are global. We license shows like Suits, a show off the USA network that becomes incredibly popular everywhere we operate. Everywhere we launch, one of the top watched shows in that country is Prison Break, the old Fox show. So there's a lot of shows that are unintentionally global but wildly global, which says that they are speaking to the soul. They're speaking to the human condition, not to regional biases or regional preferences. Right. And because you guys are freed up as sort of, you know, you're distributed over the internet and now you have this big global footprint, in some ways are you now acting more as the middle man, the distributor. Suits is a good example. You had nothing to do with its creation, but you're bringing it to these big new audiences. Right. Better Call Saul is another example of that, where Sony creates that show, it premieres on AMC network in North America. In most countries in the United States, it premieres as a Netflix original show, where yet we didn't produce it. But our licensing dollars enable the show to be produced at such a high caliber. And so in all these new countries, are you going to be able to do the same stuff you do here at the same price? Like in countries with, you know, different economics, with different levels of broadband, how are you going to sell Netflix and how are people going to access it? Well, we're going to start off there, right? So Netflix is priced, you know, with near parity all around the world today in our existing 60 countries that we were operating prior to this morning. And I think that'll be the case for a while while we kind of figure out the market and the market conditions. And so are there technologies that you're looking at? You know, we're here at CES, things like virtual reality or, you know, live streaming has become increasingly popular. Are there opportunities? Are we live streaming now? We are live streaming now. So don't screw this up. I felt something. That's why I was wondering. Are there opportunities for you to do things that are, yeah, a little bit different than sort of, you know, the traditional format of here's a show, you can watch it episodically. Here's a film, you can watch it in one sitting. Yeah, you know, VR is an example, I think is one thing that I don't know yet how it will emerge as a part of narrative storytelling. It's fun and there's a lot that will come over the next couple of years with it. So we're not, we're trying not to get too far ahead of the platform itself so that people will be able to watch whatever we're producing for it. So you can watch Netflix, movies and TV shows with VR goggles and have that experience. But in terms of incorporating into our production, just on pure, very, very edge case experimental right now. And we produce as an example, over the holiday we released an episode of Marco Polo called 100 Eyes that was an origin story of one of the main characters of Marco Polo that we just dropped. It just, one day it just was on the site and with no hype and no fanfare and a way to bridge season one and season two. We did the same with the Bojack Horseman Christmas episode last year and we are experimenting with different forms inside and outside of the series themselves. Chelsea Handler will be our first talk show, which is a new format for us. Making a Murderer right now is kind of an unbelievable sensation. Yeah, and it's only our second documentary series that we launched. And it is in, talk about like in the zeitgeist, that's what everyone's talking about these days. Right, and so that's a good example. Is that something that was data driven? You saw people watching a lot of true crime, they were watching a lot of murder mysteries and you said, hey we know that our audience will like this, let's make this documentary. Or are you making more decisions now based on, yeah, your gut, what seems like good creative, you know the meetings that you take? It's a little bit of both. I mean I really look at it as informed hunches. So you might have a hunch and you either use the data to either confirm the hunch or dismiss the hunch or the other way around. Which is you start seeing patterns in the data. Adam Sandler was an example of that where I was looking through these reports around the country or around the world and seeing that Adam Sandler movies in every window were performing fantastic everywhere in the world. And in some countries, Adam's movies weren't even being released. And what we saw was, no, there's a huge demand for Adam Sandler movies. And so much so that we invested in the first window for his next four movies. And the first one, Ridiculous 6, proved to be enormously global and a real huge success on Netflix already only in three weeks. As you look out into the future, today was a big announcement, you've made a big change. Do you see this doubling the subscriber base? I mean you're in so many more markets now, could this really help you change your scale? Well remember all these countries are at different states of developing in terms of broadband speeds, payment infrastructure, all those things that you need to be a really happy Netflix subscriber. So the potential of the market is huge. So for Facebook and YouTube and most internet companies, it's 80-20 international, only 20% of their business is domestic. And I think that represents what the map could look like in terms of most web-based companies. Now if we do a really great job at programming the site in a way that people are excited about the programming all over the world, you look at the global penetration of mobile phones and broadband and you say that's the market's potential. So right now the audience is larger in the US and you're saying you think internationally that market could grow to be much larger than the US current. Oh I'm sure, that would be a natural progression of the business I think. Cool.
 Hey, it's Ben Popper from The Verge.
 I'm here at CES with Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix.
 They made some big news today when they announced they were going global, adding 130 new countries.
 We're going to chat a little bit about what makes a great show and what makes a show go
 global.
 Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you announced today.
 I'm Ted Sarandos.
 I'm the Chief Content Officer for Netflix.
 Today Netflix went live in 130 additional countries, making Netflix practically global.
 I say practically because it doesn't include China yet, but we're getting there.
 How much bigger is that than you were before?
 Is that twice as big?
 Well, geography, it's a lot bigger.
 Broadband households, it's an enormous leap forward, for sure.
 The countries that you're in, the people who are watching Netflix, are they going to get
 pretty much the same experience that I would in the U.S.?
 Is it going to vary by territory?
 Unfortunately, because where we sit today with this patchwork of availability because
 of existing deals and old contracts and those kind of things, there's a patchwork of availability
 around the world.
 So, Netflix today is different from one country to the next.
 What we're working for every year is that it becomes less and less fragmented and more
 global.
 All of our original series, as an example, we release globally at the same moment.
 More and more of our licensing dollars, let's say about 80 to 85 percent of our new licensing
 dollars are spent globally buying content for where we have global rights and lined
 up windows.
 It's going to take several years to do it, but every year, think about it as less and
 less fragmented.
 A lot of the shows that you produce are set in different parts of the world.
 Is the idea that you're going to begin producing content locally in all these different countries
 and trying to figure out what would work on a global level and then making those shows
 sort of the Netflix tent poles?
 Yeah, there's a version of that happening today, a show like Narcos.
 Narcos I think is probably the purest vision for global television we've seen yet.
 And I say that because we produce it with a French film company, the oldest film production
 company in France.
 It's shot in Colombia.
 It was created by a Brazilian, stars a Brazilian who speaks Spanish.
 The show is about 85 percent in Spanish and people love it in Germany.
 So I mean it's a real global show in almost every aspect of the creation, the production
 and its consumption as well.
 We are also doing shows that are more locally focused, but we think we'll find a large global
 audience for like Club de Cuervos is a show about a soccer team.
 We film in Mexico in Spanish.
 Most of the watching of that is in Spanish and in Latin America, but we do find U.S.
 Latino market loves the show as well.
 And that's getting bigger.
 We're filming a show in France right now called Marseille with Gerard Depardieu in French.
 It will be a great piece of French original programming that people will watch on Netflix
 around the world.
 I've heard you talk before about how House of Cards is really popular in China and I
 know that's a major market you guys want to move into.
 When you say it's really popular in China, is that people pirating it or getting it through
 a VPN?
 Who's watching it in China and how are they watching it?
 So House of Cards, the rights for House of Cards outside of Netflix are controlled by
 Sony and they sell them off to other SVOD and TVOD suppliers in China.
 So it's through legitimate channels.
 It's watched an enormous volume in China.
 So you know that the content would work there.
 What are the obstacles?
 What are the roadblocks to actually getting Netflix into China?
 I think it's a good example of the exciting opportunity for global television, which is
 you wouldn't think much about House of Cards as Chinese.
 We see things like Sense8 is a show that's kind of architected to be a global show.
 It's filmed in eight different cities at the same time with local talent in those cities
 with a big global filmmaker, you know, the Wachowskis creating the show.
 But what's been really exciting is to see things that are not necessarily engineered
 to be global that just organically are global.
 We license shows like Suits, a show off the USA network that becomes incredibly popular
 everywhere we operate.
 Everywhere we launch, one of the top watched shows in that country is Prison Break, the
 old Fox show.
 So there's a lot of shows that are unintentionally global but wildly global, which says that
 they are speaking to the soul.
 They're speaking to the human condition, not to regional biases or regional preferences.
 Right.
 And because you guys are freed up as sort of, you know, you're distributed over the
 internet and now you have this big global footprint, in some ways are you now acting
 more as the middle man, the distributor.
 Suits is a good example.
 You had nothing to do with its creation, but you're bringing it to these big new audiences.
 Right.
 Better Call Saul is another example of that, where Sony creates that show, it premieres
 on AMC network in North America.
 In most countries in the United States, it premieres as a Netflix original show, where
 yet we didn't produce it.
 But our licensing dollars enable the show to be produced at such a high caliber.
 And so in all these new countries, are you going to be able to do the same stuff you
 do here at the same price?
 Like in countries with, you know, different economics, with different levels of broadband,
 how are you going to sell Netflix and how are people going to access it?
 Well, we're going to start off there, right?
 So Netflix is priced, you know, with near parity all around the world today in our existing
 60 countries that we were operating prior to this morning.
 And I think that'll be the case for a while while we kind of figure out the market and
 the market conditions.
 And so are there technologies that you're looking at?
 You know, we're here at CES, things like virtual reality or, you know, live streaming has become
 increasingly popular.
 Are there opportunities?
 Are we live streaming now?
 We are live streaming now.
 So don't screw this up.
 I felt something.
 That's why I was wondering.
 Are there opportunities for you to do things that are, yeah, a little bit different than
 sort of, you know, the traditional format of here's a show, you can watch it episodically.
 Here's a film, you can watch it in one sitting.
 Yeah, you know, VR is an example, I think is one thing that I don't know yet how it
 will emerge as a part of narrative storytelling.
 It's fun and there's a lot that will come over the next couple of years with it.
 So we're not, we're trying not to get too far ahead of the platform itself so that people
 will be able to watch whatever we're producing for it.
 So you can watch Netflix, movies and TV shows with VR goggles and have that experience.
 But in terms of incorporating into our production, just on pure, very, very edge case experimental
 right now.
 And we produce as an example, over the holiday we released an episode of Marco Polo called
 100 Eyes that was an origin story of one of the main characters of Marco Polo that we
 just dropped.
 It just, one day it just was on the site and with no hype and no fanfare and a way to bridge
 season one and season two.
 We did the same with the Bojack Horseman Christmas episode last year and we are experimenting
 with different forms inside and outside of the series themselves.
 Chelsea Handler will be our first talk show, which is a new format for us.
 Making a Murderer right now is kind of an unbelievable sensation.
 Yeah, and it's only our second documentary series that we launched.
 And it is in, talk about like in the zeitgeist, that's what everyone's talking about these
 days.
 Right, and so that's a good example.
 Is that something that was data driven?
 You saw people watching a lot of true crime, they were watching a lot of murder mysteries
 and you said, hey we know that our audience will like this, let's make this documentary.
 Or are you making more decisions now based on, yeah, your gut, what seems like good creative,
 you know the meetings that you take?
 It's a little bit of both.
 I mean I really look at it as informed hunches.
 So you might have a hunch and you either use the data to either confirm the hunch or dismiss
 the hunch or the other way around.
 Which is you start seeing patterns in the data.
 Adam Sandler was an example of that where I was looking through these reports around
 the country or around the world and seeing that Adam Sandler movies in every window were
 performing fantastic everywhere in the world.
 And in some countries, Adam's movies weren't even being released.
 And what we saw was, no, there's a huge demand for Adam Sandler movies.
 And so much so that we invested in the first window for his next four movies.
 And the first one, Ridiculous 6, proved to be enormously global and a real huge success
 on Netflix already only in three weeks.
 As you look out into the future, today was a big announcement, you've made a big change.
 Do you see this doubling the subscriber base?
 I mean you're in so many more markets now, could this really help you change your scale?
 Well remember all these countries are at different states of developing in terms of broadband
 speeds, payment infrastructure, all those things that you need to be a really happy
 Netflix subscriber.
 So the potential of the market is huge.
 So for Facebook and YouTube and most internet companies, it's 80-20 international, only
 20% of their business is domestic.
 And I think that represents what the map could look like in terms of most web-based companies.
 Now if we do a really great job at programming the site in a way that people are excited
 about the programming all over the world, you look at the global penetration of mobile
 phones and broadband and you say that's the market's potential.
 So right now the audience is larger in the US and you're saying you think internationally
 that market could grow to be much larger than the US current.
 Oh I'm sure, that would be a natural progression of the business I think.
 Cool.