Disney CEO Bob Iger already made his perspective clear about the ongoing guild strikes last week before the SAG-AFTRA one commenced. Now it’s Netflix CEO’s Ted Sarandos‘ turn. Variety reports that the streamer head chimed in about the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes on Netflix’s Q2 earnings call yesterday, and his tone sounds, at least on the surface, more understanding than Iger’s.
“Let me start by making something absolutely clear: This strike is not an outcome that we wanted,” Sarandos said during the call (but keep in mind Netflix’s Q2 interview was pre-recorded). “We make deals all the time. We are constantly at the table negotiating with writers with directors with actors and producers with everyone across the industry. And we very much hoped to reach an agreement by now. So I also want to say, if I may, on a personal level, I was raised in a union household. My dad was a member of IBEW Local 640. He was a union electrician. And I remember his local because that union was very much a part of our lives when I was growing up. And I also remember on more than one occasion my dad being out on strike. And I remember that because it takes an enormous toll on your family, financially and emotionally.”
Bringing up family and personal experience certainly isn’t the approach that Iger took last week. Nor is it the one Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took in May about the WGA strikes, when he said that “a love of work” will ultimately end the strike. Sarandos wants to try a different, more understanding tactic. But his words may not quell the guild members on the picket line, who likened Hollywood management to robber barons over the weekend.
“You should know that nobody here, nobody within the AMPTP, and I’m sure nobody at SAG or nobody at the WGA took any of this lightly,” continued Sarandos. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do there. There are a handful of complicated issues. We’re super-committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible, one that is equitable, and one that enables the industry and everybody in it to move forward into the future.”
Well, at least Sarando didn’t say the union members aren’t being “realistic” like Iger did last Thursday. SAG-AFTRA members started their strike at 12:01a last Friday morning, joining WGA members who had already been on the picket line for just over two months. The current length of the WGA guild strike is two months, two weeks, and four days, and neither the guild nor AMPTP has budged in negotiations during that time.
So when will Netflix first feel the heat from the two strikes? Sarandos weighed in on that issue on the pre-recorded call yesterday. “We put some of our upcoming content in the letter,” said the CEO. “We said in the last call, we produce heavily across all kinds of content, TV, film, unscripted, scripted, local, domestic, English, non-English, all those things. And they’re all true. But it’s besides the point: the real point is we need to get the strike to a conclusion, so that we can all move forward.” But will Netflix eventually run out of upcoming content to release if the strikes continue through the rest of 2023? Said Sarandos back in April, “We do have a pretty robust slate of releases to takes us into a long time.”
So while the Netflix CEO doesn’t overtly have the “starve them out” policy of other studio heads about the striking guild members, he’s confident his company has more than enough upcoming content to satiate viewers; for the time being, anyway. But Sarandos’ comments feel more grounded than Iger’s or Zaslav’s. “We respect the writers, and we respect the WGA” Sarandos continued in April. “We couldn’t be here without them. We don’t want a strike. The last time there was a strike, it was devastating to creators. It was really hard on the industry. It was painful for local economies that support productions. And it was very, very, very bad for fans.”
As noted earlier, the SAG-AFTRA strike hits one week tomorrow. It’s the first time since 1960 that both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are on the strike at the same time. Sixty three years ago, WGA’s strike lasted 153 days, while the SAG-AFTRA one lasted 43. How long will the current ones continue? We’re going to find out whether we like it or not.
