Netflix (NFLX) Co-CEO Sarandos Says Live Events Take 5% of Budget for 1% of Viewing

Sarandos Flags Slow Growth

Netflix (NFLX) co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on Thursday that the streamer is growing more slowly than he wants, telling Bloomberg's Screentime event in Los Angeles that the company's own spending choices are creating much of the drag. “We are, though, also doing things that create a lot of headwind,” he said, framing the slowdown as an internal matter rather than a demand problem. The remarks, carried in a post by Wall St Engine, identified live programming as a key brake: live events absorb about 5% of Netflix's $20 billion annual content budget yet generate only around 1% of total viewing hours. Live programming has become the company's most expensive growth bet, and the numbers behind it are unusually lopsided. Overall viewing rose just 2% year over year in the first half of 2026, a figure that shows how thin growth is running into the October 20 earnings report. The disclosure lands on a stock already under pressure: shares sit near half their June 2025 record of $134, and Netflix is down roughly 27% this year even though the S&P 500 set a record high in August. Guidance has slipped in step, with the next-quarter revenue growth forecast moving from 15% to 13% and then 12% across 2026. Sarandos blames the shortfall largely on those internal choices, but a growing camp of investors sees the bigger threat in rivals with far deeper pockets, the debate that now frames the report. The company has not published revised subscriber or engagement targets ahead of the print, so investors are left reading the co-CEO's words as the clearest available signal of the trajectory.

@wallstengine · X post

A post by Wall St Engine.

View on X

Wall Street Divided on Netflix

Investor Brad Freeman, who publishes as Stock Market Nerd, pushed back on the live-programming explanation the same day. Live content does yield fewer watch hours per dollar of spend, he acknowledged, but it draws a disproportionate share of new, engaged members, which should offset the cost. He called the company “an iconic company in a tough spot” and pointed instead at competition from Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, groups that can fund streaming libraries without needing them to earn much profit. Amazon alone is valued near $3 trillion, roughly ten times Netflix's $285 billion market cap. Viewing data supports the concern: YouTube captured a record 14.2% of US TV viewing in July, while Netflix held 7.9% in June on Nielsen's last reading before a methodology change. The sell side splits along the same line. Wells Fargo cut the stock to underweight on September 18 with a $57 target, and HSBC moved to hold. Deutsche Bank upgraded Netflix to buy on September 30, setting a $95 target and citing 18% Asia-Pacific revenue growth; the upgrade leans on international momentum, the one region where demand is still accelerating. Those figures bracket a wide disagreement over what a pure-play streamer is worth against businesses that treat content as a side line. The next test arrives with the October 20 report, which the stock has followed with a decline after each of its last four quarterly prints. Investors will read subscriber additions, engagement and the live-event cost line to judge whether the headwind Sarandos described is structural or a transition expense.

@StockMarketNerd · X post

Stock Market Nerd.

View on X

COINOTAG data shows Netflix (NFLX) last at $67.13, down 1.51% over 24 hours, inside a daily downtrend with the MACD signal bearish and the RSI at 27.0, close to oversold. The composite scoring rates the $65.37 support at 74/100, where the S3 pivot, the Bollinger lower band and the ATR lower band converge, while the $67.40 resistance scores 78/100 on a Fibonacci 0.886 level, the pivot point and a MACD cross. Positioning on the stock perpetual, a leveraged futures contract without expiry, shows funding at 0.0017% per interval and open interest near $7.6 million. A daily close below $65.37 would confirm the downtrend the news implies; reclaiming $67.40 would be the first sign the selling is exhausting.