Netflix Boss Says Too Much Quantity Doesn’t Hurt Quality - He’s Wrong

The TJCS crew discuss a recent interview with Netflix head Ted Sarandos in which he discussed his opinion that quantity doesn’t hurt quality when it comes to streaming content.
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[@brandonnezamoodeen]

This isn’t even the worst thing he said in this interview. He said that the Barbenheimer event would have been just as big on Netflix than it was in theaters.

[@cementbox4430]

@@josepablodeleon6073yeah madam web and Morbius were amazing.

[@29AndreG]

I have seen more cancelled shows on Netflix than I do ones that keep going.

[@Tubamaster2292010]

Ikr smh

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

The problem with Netflix is they produce too much content, and more of it is bad than good

[@jst4572]

I don’t see how much content they produce being an issue. 1. All of those people who get employed on their shows and films are able to provide for their families when they shoot. 2. If they cut back on content those people would be affected, but the viewers would be as well. You cut Netflix originals by a lot and guess what? We’re left with less choice and more of the same shit across different streamers. 3. Some people forget Netflix is building its legacy and it’s library while other streamers benefited from initial access to vast libraries at launch. 4. There is a reason why Netflix is the top streamer. It produces quality, but also quantity in a way not even Disney, Max or Amazon could try to replicate. They don’t need to switch it up and give us less content when it’s always a sure bet that among 50 titles two at least will be hits that sustain the brand, and the other 48 will find viewership across their diverse customer base.

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

​@@jst4572 because shows have a likelihood of getting canceled, which they do all the time. They are stretching themselves too thin.

[@TerrellAustin19941]

Exactly

[@Duderf-go4nq]

And they barely advertise so we can know when the good shows come out

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

@@Duderf-go4nq all they do is post the trailer on KZbin and are surprised no one hears about it

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

Everyone should follow HBO's model, Quality over Quantity

[@JezzaBondiBeach]

Very true !

[@lucyvanlipton7433]

I agree. Mare of east town. HOTD. Last of us. I LOVE all these shows

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

​@@lucyvanlipton7433succession, industry, the gilded age etc.

[@kenbozu1]

I wish Netflix would drop Beverly Hills Cop 4 in the theaters first before going streaming.

[@JB-sc1tg]

Netflix is the most profitable streaming service for a reason. Having a large quantity of shows and movies has worked for them. Sure they could cut down and make quality shows like HBO or Apple TV. But those streaming services aren't making the money Netflix is making.

[@JackDaniels1965]

Disney tried quantity over quality and it blew up in their face. Netflix seems to be built of sterner stuff because honestly quantity over quality is not hurting their bottom line (in other words, it's working for them).

[@mhawang8204]

Netflix works differently because not all of their content is original. They also license movies/shows from other studios and buy more international content. Disney+ produces more content in house percentage-wise. They can’t just go buy movies from their competitors.

[@ajhornes]

He’s out of his mind. I prefer the content on Max and Prime more than what’s on Netflix. And what he said about Barbenheimer being just as successful on Netflix than in theatres is insane. It was an event that brought people together in theatres and seeing them back to back. Now, can Ted quit being a jerk and release the Kevin Spacey “Gore” project or sell it to another distributor so the fans that still care about him and seeing him work again can see it??

[@jst4572]

I don’t see how much content they produce being an issue. 1. All of those people who get employed on their shows and films are able to provide for their families when they shoot. 2. If they cut back on content those people would be affected, but the viewers would be as well. You cut Netflix originals by a lot and guess what? We’re left with less choice and more of the same shit across different streamers. 3. Some people forget Netflix is building its legacy and it’s library while other streamers benefited from initial access to vast libraries at launch. 4. There is a reason why Netflix is the top streamer. It produces quality, but also quantity in a way not even Disney, Max or Amazon could try to replicate. They don’t need to switch it up and give us less content when it’s always a sure bet that among 50 titles two at least will be hits that sustain the brand, and the other 48 will find viewership across their diverse customer base.

[@billymoore7182]

The thing I find about Netflix is that their TV shows tend to be better than their films. Some shows on Netflix are: 1. The Lincoln Lawyer 2. Wednesday 3. Stanger Things 4. Lucifer 5. Deadboy Detectives 6. House of Cards I don't think I could list 6 movies from Netflix that I've liked unless they're films licensed from other platforms.

[@harekzigzagon376]

Ozark?????!!!!

[@billymoore7182]

Never saw it.

[@juanthompson8016]

Wow you're missing out on a damn good series 😮​@@billymoore7182

[@bcatbb2896]

im actually with the Netflix CEO. Netflix is the only place that have adapted mangas and novels into shows that other studios would never ever touch, and for that i give them props for it.

[@monkeytoung]

Yeah, but they're not even that great, if you ask me again, sure, there are that rare exception, but it could have been a lot better anyway, do not. They're not putting much effort into it. Cause there's too much quantity. I'd rather see somebody actually gives them care attention and some detail into this versus just throwing it out there as quick as possible. With what feels like a lawh of effort and care

[@bcatbb2896]

@@monkeytoung i get what you mean, but i think of it as a start. big franchises has to start somewhere, and if it starts off bad and grow into good in the future then im down 30 years into the future

[@monkeytoung]

@bcatbb2896 ya take time to develop something good vs putting it put for rhe sake of putting it out and ruin any chances because putting out crap just to have quantity vs something of actual quality

[@bobtahar]

I kinda agree with Netflix boss... because Netflix cater to worldwide casual movie viewers... probably most of them didn't go to cinema to watch a movie. I just watch Atlas... bad CGI... got very bad reviews... but hey watching at night... the movie is not bad at all... very entertaining and kinda emotional too... I do find a lot of Netflix Original movies are like this...

[@xjuanx92]

👊Well said. Whether a "movie" critic, or a "food" critic. I don't need the "Godfather" experience for everything I watch, and just as well, I don't need a Michelin Star gourmet meal every night. Sometimes a grilled cheese sandwich will do.

[@martinschouwenburg506]

It was okay and in a week I will have forgotten what it was about. But so what? The vast majority of fiction written(books) is forgettable and medium quality but still they sell. People enjoy consuming that kind of content. You can endlessly discuss about the why but that's for me too subjective. So Netflix pushing out lots of medium qualilty content, which is much easier to make than high quality content, makes perfect sense. Seeing the market position of Netflix they apparently do something right.

[@jonathanlemmon9597]

The film industry is going to die by the end of the decade because of clowns like Ted Sarandos.

[@stillbuyvhs]

Netflix's boss seems to be saying that quality is subjective, & that most of their movies appeal to niche audiences. Most people may think most of Netflix's movies are bad, but the people will probably disagree about which films are bad. Even the Oscar-nominated films are, arguably, Netflix attempting to appeal to a certain group of people, Academy voters.

[@thomashenderson2797]

Ya, Netflix clearly doesn't know what they're doing. The are only the#1 streamer in world, and it's not even close. It doesn't matter what they do, they are extremely profitable and none of the others are.

[@Alec_Collins78]

That's not an unfair point. That's all they care about. I like to kick the streaming services but at the end of the day they're bears shitting in the woods; what are they gonna do?

[@xjuanx92]

I enjoy a lot of the Netflix movies myself. I can't say I agree with the quantity = garbage notion, but I don't review movies for a living and to be honest I really can't get as worked up about it personally since its not my job. As an average viewer, who doesn't need to have "The Godfather" experience with everything I see, I can find value in having a number of movies to choose from, and a large library to sift through. Makes finding a gem of a movie, that no one has ever heard of, more satisfying. Im one of those movie goers that is thrilled with finding a great movie that some know-it-all "movie critic" hasn't seen or commented on.

[@ChristianJDY]

Netflix works best with quantity rather than quality. Even if it’s not good as quality wise, is a streaming that needs content to keep and gain new subscribers

[@evanlambert8613]

He clearly hasn't seen Marvel's recent track record. 🤨

[@nochilllwill]

i wouldn’t care if they allowed accounts to be shared again

[@ericoffill3697]

The problem isn't the quantity, it's THE MARKETING!!! I never know when Netflix puts out a movie that is any good! They treat the gold-standard movies like the bargain bin flicks. They see all of it as "content".

[@andrewlong5126]

I agree but again say your looking for something new to watch. Netflix will ALWAYS deliver something new

[@terryf3282]

Netflix has way too much crap. I would trade 5 of their crap shows for 1 show with Midnight Mass or House of The Dragon quality.

[@soundsonic2754]

Why do I also feel Netflix promotes dogshit projects but not their good ones. I have seen so many ads for atlas or rebel moon but saw next to nothing for glass onion

[@sebagonzalezmusic]

Quantity and quality are definitely a delicate balance, but John's not wrong when he says a lot of Netflix movies are trash with one or two gems. I think if Netflix reeled things in for a limited amount of movies (maybe 30-50, basically a third or less of their current output) a year, focused on making them as good as possible, put some marketing behind them, and even gave some theatrical releases, I think their movies would work a lot better. That might stretch their money out more long-term and they'd make some back from the box office.

[@nextlvlng]

Fairly sure Ghosted was on Apple TV+ and not Netflix.

[@williambrackin]

Ted Serandos gets a ton of credit from me for giving stand up comedy a new de-facto home in today’s day and age. It’s practically replaced Comedy Central in that regard. Not only do you have the big heavy hitters like Seinfeld, Gaffigan, Chappelle, and Gervais on there, but you’ve also got the next generation such as Shane Gillis, Nate Bargatze, and Theo Vonn. If you like laughing, Netflix is your jam. I don’t agree with all of Ted’s thoughts, but he is a visionary.

[@Erichwanh]

I can make a lot of arguments against his statement, but I'll stick to this. I don't subscribe to any streaming service. There are too many of them. The quantity objectively hurts the quality for me in that respect, because no matter the quality of the product, I won't see it.

[@Omniscientreach]

Netflix isnt competing with the other streaming services, its competing with KZbin which is beating everything else because of the quantity that gets uploaded

[@terryf3282]

I watch more KZbin than Netflix. Some KZbinrs do great documentaries. One KZbin called Super Eyepatch Wolf does great videos. Did an 80 minute video on what the Internet did to Garfield better than 90% of the stuff on netflix.

[@waltzingaranel]

I also watch more YT than Netflix. It's not because I think it's quality. I watch when I'm bored and lazy. I don't focus on YT videos; I'm usually doing other things while I listen. I don't feel like I'm disrespecting YT by passively consuming it.

[@waltzingaranel]

BTW, if I'm watching a movie in a theater or a documentary or a drama on my tv, it feels disrespectful and I'm ruining the experience if I'm not focused on watching it. I don't generally feel the same about YT content on my phone or mobile device.

[@terryf3282]

​@waltzingaranel there are heaps of things to listen to on yourube if you are cooking, cleaning or doing something. Tim Dillon, Redlettermedia, sports podcasts, movie rankings, movie analysis ect ect never ending .

[@Loggie20]

I stop watching Netflix films a little bit ago for that reason. Just not good. I won’t give anything a shot. I just watch the documentaries they put out

[@Infisly]

I don't even need to read a quote to feel dumber. I just need to see the words "Ted Sarandos said" and I expect it to be the stupidest thing I've heard that day.

[@Zatheris76]

I guess my big question here with where I agree that quality is not less important than quantity but what people think is quality drastically varies there are some movies like their romance series of movies that were just simple movies to watch with cute boys and cute girls in it and that draws in more than enough attention similar to pop music which is not exactly quality music it's just catchy but it makes billions. I could be mistaken here but I also think that Netflix is the currently number one streamer as far as subscribers and profit meaning that whatever their model is it's been working for the better part of a decade and it's still working today. What they should be doing is a bit of both having 30 movies that they pick as the top movies and only market those and have them show up in their feeds more often and market them on social media and other platforms where the other quantity based movies are just thrown on there to fill space and to keep people having new things to watch with 30 movies you could have two new movies every month that were advertised along with say one or two of your best series a year that you focus on but you could still throw out another hundred mediocre low budget easy to make movies to fill in the gaps and two or three other TV series to fill in the gaps. So I think you could do both like look at Marvel Marvel's had one movie nominated out of like 30 but they're making billions of dollars so the moves are profitable whether they're nominated for an award by stuffy old people or not. To be honest I can't think of a movie that's one an award in the last 5 years that I've even cared about so winning awards ultimately means nothing mostly the most boring types of movies like the Irishman which I thought was a young fest win awards which I have no problem with they win award for whatever they win awards for but I don't care about those kind of movies and based on profitability most people don't either. Nothing in Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek have ever been nominated for award other than one Marvel and Lord of the rings which is a rare exception that a movie was fantasy based and got a bunch of awards I wish more of them would get that I think they deserve it but that's just not how the award he works. But if you go look at the top 10 movies that have made the most amount of money meaning that most amount of people have seen it and enjoyed it most of them have not won any awards and definitely not best picture I don't think any of them have outside of the Lord of the rings. That's not the same movie that Titanic aren't great but Avatar didn't win best picture or endgame didn't win best picture yet they've made more money than the last 10 best picture winners combined. So awards don't necessarily equal profit and most of these studios are there primarily for profit so where I don't 100% agree with Netflix and statement I also don't 100% agree with John statements obviously quantity is making them money and making them right now the number one streamer. I think Disney kind of did the best of both were there are limiting how many movies each mini studio can make but I don't know how many movies Disney is a company plans to make a year, but I can say for sure there's a lack of content coming out fairly regularly on Disney Plus that makes it borderline where I'm going to cancel it where if they had more stuff even like high school musical the musical a simple TV show like that that was nothing great but it was good enough to fill an hour coupled by a couple of other shows like the mighty ducks and things like that that were not great shows but they gave you something to watch and they were enjoyable enough to watch that have been missing Disney is going to die if it can't get more quantity out there I think all studios should have a good quantity while focusing as their priority quality but you got to have a minimum of content coming out every month / year to keep your viewers subscribed or you're going to get more churn. So I would say both Netflix and John are wrong and it's somewhere in the middle that is the sweet spot.

[@JezzaBondiBeach]

Disney is a prime example that quantity over quality doesn’t work. Star Wars and MCU have been abysmal… yet the studio doesn’t seem to learn still 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@soumentalukder4750]

Most Netflix original movies are mediocre 😷

[@Hicks-g1m]

Yeah putting out new stuff on Netflix without thinking about the quality is always a good idea

[@mikegarrens5286]

Too much quantity is what you need!!!!!

[@josermaiz]

lol Netflix with too much content I can pick up

[@cementbox4430]

Why would you make more movies but make them less good, that’s a great way to waste money.

[@Djblois1]

John, who did the math for you? the average is 161, not 155

[@wrath0808]

He gave you the average for the past 5 years, not just the 3 he showed us on screen.

[@Djblois1]

@@wrath0808 ty i didn't realize. Although, it would have been better to show all 5 years if he was giving the average of 5 years.

[@bluray76]

Haha hey?! How come Netflix gets away with this crap but Cannon films went away. Sounds like Netflix doing their that motto anyway

[@lukesmale24]

Unfortunately the ones that do good numbers are the garbage Adam Sandler type films...those Oscar nominated films? Most of them barely got views...like Maestro.

[@jakemiller4411]

They have a few good originals but they churn out a bunch of mediocre stuff no one talks about

[@rwq0042]

@Netflix if you're going for quantity, then freaking renew Warrior for Season 4, gdi!

[@ubuu7]

they already killed The bastard son and the devil himself and Lockwood and Co. They don't give a sh*t about quality, I will never forgive them.

[@jboogie45213]

You're wrong about this one John. There's no correlation between the two. If the upper limit is 300 movies a year, there is nothing to say that a studio cant 300 great films. Causation does not mean correlation

[@waltzingaranel]

Sounds extremely unlikely. Has any studio made 200 “quality” movie in a year? Do you have a personal stake with Netflix? I side with John. I don’t have the impression of Netflix as being quality. It’s labyrinth. It’s a smorgasbord. It’s a flash-in-a- pan. Too much choice and no direction. It’s my least watched streamer. I feel like my time is wasted less, for example, when I turn to Max instead of Netflix. More return on my investment. I perceive quality over quantity. The many familiar brands help with that. I’d probably enjoy watching more Netflix than Max, if I trusted Netflix more. With so much quantity, there’s a lot to like, but I don’t trust them enough to start a movie or series than I know nothing about.

[@jboogie45213]

​@@waltzingaranel This isn't about Netflix. This is about the idea that quantity and quality are correlated. Movies can be good or bad regardless of how many are made. There are many factors that go into determining whether a movie is good, including the target audience. The idea that a studio's movies are bad because of how many they make is confirmation bias.

[@jimtastic6750]

The problem with today’s world is that people have forgotten the special feel of going to the movie theater and enjoy that fiction world. Now all filmmakers and other productions teams think movie theaters always need big $300M budget movies and not $40M budget movies. Movies like Kung fu panda 4 is a good example of why the furious five were not in it. Because the actors were to expensive to resprise their roles as furious five. If characters are going to not be in movies and not have much lines than they should t hire expensive big name actors