Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos admitted this week that the streaming giant is “not growing as fast as I want us to,” even as he tried to reassure markets rattled by a sliding stock price.
“Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” Sarandos said at Bloomberg’s 2026 Screentime event, according to a report by the Hollywood Reporter.
He also moved to distance Netflix from rivals built on amateur content, saying the company is “definitely… not in the UGC [user-generated content] business,” and adding, “We’re in the professionally produced content business.”
The admission comes as Netflix posted just two-percent viewership growth over the first half of 2026. In response, the company has pushed into live programming, including high-profile NFL games, to try to drive engagement.
Shares in the streamer fell five percent last month after Wells Fargo downgraded Netflix’s stock, citing worrying trends in user engagement.
On Wednesday, Sarandos disclosed that Netflix puts roughly five percent of its $20 billion annual content budget toward live programming, but that spending accounts for only about one percent of total viewership — a return that falls well short of the investment.
Sarandos later softened his earlier admission, insisting, “The business is great and growing fine.” He said live programming has driven a significant number of new sign-ups and has helped curb subscriber cancellations.
Asked whether he regretted Netflix’s short-lived winning bid for Warner Bros. — minus the Discovery assets — Sarandos replied, “Nahhh.”
“I think the plan was solid. We won the deal at some point, so we think we priced it right — at our scale.”
“That was the top price point where I thought we could return value to our shareholders with that asset,” he added. “Any more than that, I thought we’d be taking it into negative territory — even with our scale.”
