Netflix co-chief executive officer Ted Sarandos acknowledged on October 1, 2026, at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference that the streaming giant grew its viewership by just 2 percent during the first half of the year, admitting the platform is not expanding as fast as he wants despite pushes into live events and creator monetization.
Slowing Viewership Growth and Live Programming ROI
During his appearance at the Bloomberg Screentime event, October 1, 2026, Ted Sarandos addressed the company’s trajectory head-on. Overall viewership growth stalled at a mere 2 percent over the opening six months of 2026. “Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” Sarandos stated.
To kickstart engagement, Netflix has ventured into live programming, securing high-profile properties such as NFL games. However, the financial return on investment remains modest. Netflix allocates roughly 5 percent of its $20 billion annual content budget toward live programming, which in turn captures approximately 1 percent of total viewership. Despite the low initial viewing percentage, Sarandos emphasized that live events excel at driving signups, reducing subscriber churn, and attracting advertisers. “The business is great and growing fine,” he added, walking back the starkness of his initial growth admission.
Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Takes Shape
The sluggish internal metrics arrive as the streaming marketplace faces massive structural consolidation. A judge officially approved the $111 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery earlier on October 1, 2026. David Ellison orchestrated the deal backed by his billionaire father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
Netflix had previously pursued a winning bid for the Warner Bros. asset before being outmaneuvered. When asked if he regretted the temporary winning bid, Sarandos dismissed the notion. “Nahhh,” he said. “I think the plan was solid. We won the deal at some point, so we think we priced it right — at our scale. That was the top price point where I thought we could return value to our shareholders with that asset.”
Sarandos questioned the ultimate market impact of the newly minted mega-merger, noting that standard arithmetic may not apply to streaming dominance. “It looks on paper— so far it’s one and one,” he noted regarding market share. “So I don’t know if one and one is two, or one and one is one and a half, or one and one is three.”
Rejecting User-Generated Content and FAST Tiers
While Netflix increasingly collaborates with digital talent, Sarandos clarified that the company is not pivoting toward user-generated content (UGC) or mimicking YouTube’s foundational model. “We’re definitely… not in the UGC business,” Sarandos told Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. “We’re in the professionally produced content business.”
Rather than absorbing entire creator populations, Netflix targets creators who already produce near-professional programming to better monetize their work through multiple revenue streams. This multi-stream capability sets Netflix apart from purely advertiser-funded platforms like YouTube.
Despite these creator partnerships, Netflix has no plans to roll out a free, ad-supported tier. Sarandos ruled out adopting any version of FAST (free, ad-supported television), stating it would risk cannibalizing the core subscription product.
