Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, closed the first day of the Móbile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, on a high note, summoning producers of all latitudes: “We want to have more and more local productions that can reach a global audience”.
According to Hastings, the link between local and global is one of the pillars, now that the platform reached 100 million subscribers and reported US$2.47 million incomes, despite not having yet entered China.
During the conference, Hastings emphasized how the platform has transcended borders, and offered the example of the series Narcos, “made in Colombia, with a Brazilian star, it has been watched globally.” The most amazing thing I have learned is the variety of people´s tastes around the world. In order to satisfy them, there is still a lot we can do. We can learn one step at a time and adapt. We don´t have a rigid vision about the future. We want to be flexible”.
Regarding if the platform has displaced pay TV services, he said that at least in the US, figures indicate that the impact has not been drastic.
“We have 50% of homes in the US suscribed to Netflix, and cable TV operators have maintained a stable audience around 99 or 100 million, a very small change, even though Netflix is in half of the homes. Companies such as Comcast had to realize that Netflix is another form of entertainment, like HBO, and that it was not going to diminish their advertising proposal.”
