Back to All News
Ted Sarandos Keynote: Royal Television Society London Convention 2024
Entertainment
17 September 2024
GlobalUnited Kingdom
Link copied to clipboard
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for inviting me. It's a privilege to be here with you.
The Royal Television Society always holds a special place in my heart because it was here, back in 2016, that I showed you the first trailer for the first season of The Crown.
Over the next seven years, The Crown went on to become the most nominated British TV series in Emmy history - and only one of three to win best drama.
But I'll always remember it as a show that stood conventional wisdom on its head.
Peter Morgan's pitch was for a six-season show with a rotating cast. A show that would take ten years to produce. It was something that no one had ever tried before - and something that most people thought would never work. But it did, introducing a new generation of stars to the world.
Besides being one of the best shows of the last decade, The Crown is also a perfect example of why Britain remains one of the best places for TV and film.
You have some of the very best writers, directors, producers, actors, crew, crafts and locations anywhere in the world. I have always thought of the UK as the birthplace of prestige television - a creative culture unlike any other.
It's why Netflix invests more here than any other country outside the U.S. Since 2020, we've invested $6B in the UK creative community - and worked with over 30,000 cast and crew.
Today we have over 100 productions active in the UK.
And I've recently had the pleasure of visiting some of those sets - like Thursday Murder Club, My Oxford Year and Wake Up Dead Man, our new Knives Out movie.
So I've seen the scope and ambition of these British-made shows and films first-hand.
This wealth of talent is a Great British success story. Because it didn't happen by accident.
It happened because you have great public service broadcasters and institutions that nurture British talent and creativity. Institutions like the RTS, the oldest television society in the world.
It happened because you've consistently supported regulations that encourage creativity, innovation and long term thinking.
And it happened because you invested in education and training in the creative arts at every level, as well as investing in your amazing facilities. All of which have been supported by highly competitive tax incentives which make the UK an even more attractive place for anyone looking to make a film or show.
Filming here in Britain is always a privilege, and never a sacrifice.
In other words, Britain became one of the best countries in the world for TV and film because you made it happen.
And now, with competition for people's time and attention so high - and barriers to entry in entertainment so low - its time to make it happen again.
The question is how?
I'll start with a disclaimer: I am obviously not British, and Netflix is not a British company. But we operate in over 190 countries around the world - including this one - and that's taught us a lot over the years.
Today I want to share a few of those lessons with you.
First, to succeed we need to put the audience first - and that means embracing change.
The entertainment industry has always been defined by change. New technology comes along, new companies pop up, and patterns of consumer behavior shift.
We saw it with cable, then home video, then streaming.
And now we're seeing it happen again.
Today, choice and control are the price of admission in modern entertainment. It's streaming that consumers want. And it's how our industry stays relevant - and grows - in the face of intense competition from all directions.
Like cable TV and home video before it, streaming also opens up new opportunities for creators to make their voices heard. For distributors to reach bigger audiences. And for those audiences to have more choices of what to watch.
Just look at this summer. It's been a blockbuster few months for streaming, with Bridgerton, The Bear, and House of the Dragon - three wonderful but very different shows. And all attracting enormous audiences.
Now, at this point you may be thinking, It's easy for Netflix to talk about change. You're the one driving it. But we have struggled to adapt, too.
Back when we first started streaming, the technology wasn't great, and we had two big competitors: piracy and our own DVD business.
To succeed at streaming, we knew we had to create something better than free. And we knew we had to let our DVD business go. Because as Steve Jobs said, if you don't cannibalize your business, someone else will.
And it was painful to split the company in half. We told our DVD employees that they could not even attend company meetings any more, in essence saying: you're the past, not the future .
But it's the reason that we adapted and grew.
Today, our members can watch a world of entertainment for a fraction of the price of a box set of The Sopranos in 2007.
And they don't have to wait two months for all the episodes of a show to come out, or for a film to finish its theatrical run.
I know the TV business was built on windows, but audiences don't care about them at all.
When you work in our business long enough, it can be easy to get distracted by all of the complexities. Rights. Distribution. Technology. It goes on and on.
These are all important things. But what really matters is how well we serve our audiences. What are we willing to do to serve them better.
Which brings me to the next lesson: audiences care a lot about variety and quality.
People often ask me if we really need so many movies and TV shows on Netflix. It's a debate you've been hav
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Illusionfx is finally coming!
Alex Perea July 23, 2026
0 Comments
The new website is now live to mark the occasion.
Since the last update, feedback h...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year.
Ce...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
Back to All News
