Peter Rice is replacing Bela Bajaria as Netflix’s chief content officer this week, a leadership change that lands alongside about 1,000 layoffs. The move puts one executive in charge of the company’s global content organization just as Netflix trims roughly 6% of its workforce.
Ted Sarandos backs Bajaria
Bajaria leaves after 10 years at Netflix and after becoming chief content officer in January 2023. Ted Sarandos said, “I want to thank Bela for a decade of dedication, innovation, creativity and leadership,” and added that, “She led enormous changes at Netflix.”
He also said, “She helped broaden our content offering to include the large-scale expansion of unscripted programming and the launches of live events and sports, in addition to crafting and running a world class, global slate of films and series.” The praise sits next to a hard personnel reset, which is exactly the kind of contrast executives notice when a company keeps spending shifts in the middle of a cutback.
Rice takes global control
Rice, a former Disney and Fox executive, will lead Netflix’s global content organization and oversee scripted and unscripted series, film, live events and more across all regions. That puts one person over the categories Bajaria had been pushing together under a single command structure.
Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 after she was let go from NBCUniversal, where she was president of Universal Television. She was first brought in to help Netflix launch an unscripted division and expand licensing and studio co-productions, then was elevated to head of global in 2020 as Cindy Holland exited the company.
Layoffs hit film leadership
About 1,000 employees were cut this week, including Netflix film VP Doug Belgrad and film director Sheroum Kim. That makes the change more than a simple succession story; Netflix is reducing staff while shifting the person responsible for its biggest programming lanes.
Under Bajaria, Netflix’s slate included Bridgerton, Squid Game, Adolescence, Beef, Stranger Things, Wednesday, KPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein, and she pushed the company further into live sports and events such as The Roast of Tom Brady and deals with the NFL and WWE. Rice now inherits that mix of series, films, live events and sports-related programming without any added transition timetable, which leaves the next read for the business side simple: the content machine is staying wide, but the management layer is getting tighter.
