Why we should love Ted Sarandos

Mary Hartman Mary Hartman was a daily sitcom in the rsquo70s that as a kid screengeek Ted Sarandos used to binge all the weekrsquos episodes ofmdashon TV over a single sitting when they aired together on SundaysTed grew up to have a successful career in the videoDVD rental business which is what Netflix was when he joined it in 2000 He could see people similarly burn through boxed DVD sets of TV shows as wellThatrsquos how the idea of simultaneously dropping all episodes online of a TV show came aboutmdashwith David Fincherrsquos House of Cards 2013 Netflixrsquos first original Inadvertently inventing lsquobingewatchingrsquoAnd thatrsquos what intrigued me about Ted Netflixrsquos global content boss when I first met him over five years ago in Mumbai Hersquos been bumped up since with the dual role of the streaming giantrsquos coCEOWhat thatrsquos done is reduce his screentime He also has ldquolots of travelling to do dealing with policy and Wall Street work less Hollywoodrdquo he tells me We briefly met last week during his second India trip in the same yearConsider his profile Netflix is available in over 190 countries Each with its own catalogue of licensedoriginal shows movies Having skipped the premiere of Leave the World Behind in New York and The Crownrsquos final season in London Ted somehow made it to the premiere of the Netflix film The Archies in MumbaiHe made a surprise entry The audience literally comprised AZ of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan to Zoya Akhtar the director of courseWhat Ted also learnt about Archie was how deeply connected Indians of a certain vintage were to the American comic series I guess you travel or stream and learn ldquoItrsquos like how in Scandinavia Donald Duck is more popular than Mickey MouserdquoAt dinner parties in LA Ted is obviously asked to recco stuff to watch He naturally pushes nonAmerican content because the guests arenrsquot equally exposed to themThe key challenge he tells me is to recreate that dinner scene through the algorithm that throws up a sufficient mix of the local and international coupling comfortwatch with serendipitydiscoveryEither way he reckons audiences worldwide are the same In their entertainment they ldquoseek escape or connecthellip An untold story about India is the range of theirinternational viewingrdquoIf it wasnrsquot for Netflix I canrsquot imagine the Korean series Squid Game becoming the top global phenomenon it did As a film it had been turned down by local producers for 12 yearsHas India had a lsquoSquid Game momentrsquo of sorts yet Tangentially yes When S S Rajamoulirsquos RRR dropped on Netflix Ted recalls he casually posted about it on his social media handle ldquoThe press picked it uprdquoThe subsequent RRR ragemdashwith Americans experiencing what was after all ldquopure southern Indian cinema only they hadnrsquot seen such a thing beforerdquomdashis primarily why it went on to grab the first Oscar Best Song for an altogether Indian feature Ted spent three days meeting Telugu film industry titans in Hyderabad during his current India tripLikewise instant access to The Elephant Whisperers on Netflix is easily a reason it won the Best Documentary Short Oscar in 2023 too Again first such for an Indian As was standup comedian Vir Dasrsquos International Emmy win for his Netflix special Vir Das LandingAmong other professions a movie executiversquos is a bullshit job I donrsquot say this Anthropologist David Graeber argues this in his book Bullshit Jobs A Theory 2018I do think a lot of movie execs treat their job as thatmdashsimply replicating past or othersrsquo successes playing safe gatekeepers rather than enablers of untested quality content or prime talentsPrivately Ted comes across to me as a filmbuff tending towards a devoted film critic drawn to artsy intimate dramas Helps that he holds the key to about 16 billion annual production budgetsDuring our first meeting he had returned from the sets of Alfonso Cuaronrsquos Roma with Martin Scorsesersquos The Irishman on its way Hollywood had space for neitherThis isnrsquot to suggest Netflix is arthouse central It does take its prestige showsfilms seriously You could sense it in 2023 in particular with Trial by Fire Scoop Kohrra and of course The Railway MenTed recalls ldquoAbout four years ago I was listening to a long podcast on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy wondering whyrsquos this not a series Glad to know we were on itrdquoIn February 2022 Netflix founder Reed Hastings dropped a truthbomb declaiming that India was one pricesensitive market they were unable to crack Prices dropped Password sharing ceased Content mix perceptively improved ldquoItrsquos been cracked and we wanna keep doing thatrdquo Ted smilesWhatrsquos more daunting perhaps is the sword of censorship hanging over petrified streamers in India Already lawyers vet scripts at OTT offices like they were mergeracquisition contracts As we speak the government has threatened a censor board for OTT platforms What does Ted make of thatldquoThatrsquos why itrsquos so important to me that we have people onground in the countries we operatemdashpeople who understand not just local regulatory environment but sensitivities cultures customshellip Going to war with regulators is not good businessrdquo he says HmmmMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper