Ted Sarandos, the longtime leader of Netflix’s content efforts, has been named co-CEO with co-founder and current CEO Reed Hastings.
Sarandos will continue to serve as the company’s chief content officer, and he’s joining the company’s board of directors as well. Meanwhile, Chief Product Officer Greg Peters is taking on the additional role of chief operating officer.
In a blog post, Hastings said he does not expect this to result in major change to the company’s operations. Instead, he suggested that the “well deserved promotion” is simply “formalizing how we already run the business today.”
Hastings recalled meeting Sarandos more than 20 years ago, crediting him with much of the company’s recent success:
While I saw streaming coming and pushed for it, Ted drove the revolution in our content strategy, which was way ahead of its time and has been key to our continued success. It was typical of his ability to see where the industry – and consumer tastes – are headed. He’s built an extraordinary team, attracting some of the most creative and best entertainment executives from all around the world.
The announcement was timed with the company’s second quarter earnings announcement, in which it also revealed adding more than 10 million paid memberships in the past quarter, growing to 192.95 million paid members total. Meanwhile, operating revenue grew to more than $1.041 billion, with earnings per share of $1.59.
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