Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2023

July 19, 2023 6:00 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Spencer Wang

Hello, and welcome to the Netflix Q2 2023 Earnings Interview. I'm Spencer Wang, VP of Finance, IR and Corporate Development. Joining me today are Co-CEOs, Ted Sarandos; and Greg Peters; and CFO, Spence Neumann. Our interviewer this quarter is Jessica Reif Ehrlich from Bank of America. As a reminder, we'll be making forward-looking statements and actual results may vary.

Jessica, I'll now turn over the call to you for your first question.

Questions and Answers:

Q - Jessica Reif Ehrlich

Thank you. Well, let's start with the top of [indiscernible] not one, but two strikes. Can you give us your views of how this affects your business on a practical basis? How far out does your original content take you and how much of the content spend do you think gets pushed from '23 -- from this year into next year?

Ted Sarandos

Thanks, Jessica. Good afternoon. Thanks for the questions. Let me start by making something absolutely clear. These strikes, this strike is not an outcome that we wanted. 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 as a local -- 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 pole on your family financially and emotionally. So you should know that nobody here, nobody within ANPTP and I'm sure nobody had SAG or nobody at the WGA took any of this lightly. But we've got a lot of work to do. There are a handful of complicated issues. We're super committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible. One that's equitable and one that enables the industry and everybody in it to move forward into the future.

Jessica Reif Ehrlich

And in terms of content, how much original content -- do you have to run out, like at a certain point in time, you probably will.