Former Disney exec replaces Netflix creative leader

Friday at 02:06 PM

This one is both shocking and, given the bad place Netflix finds itself in these days, not entirely surprising. I’m told that Bela Bajaria, the Netflix chief content officer who has been an executive at the company since 2016, is leaving. She’s telling her team this afternoon. Bajaria has been in the top creative role since early 2023, spearheading the company’s $20 billion content budget and launching everything from Bridgerton to Squid Game to WWE and the NFL. Netflix declined to comment, but the streamer’s recent struggles are no secret to Puck readers. Engagement increased just 2 percent in the first half of 2026. In July, Netflix generated 7.8 percent of viewing on connected TVs, compared to 14.2 percent for YouTube, according to Nielsen. And co-C.E.O. Ted Sarandos recently admitted the platform is “not growing as fast as I want us to.” The share price is off more than 40 percent since last year, when Sarandos and co-C.E.O. Greg Peters made a failed bid for Warner Bros. Chasing a growth narrative, Netflix has launched everything from video podcasts to live events to shows from cheap YouTube creators. It also laid off about 1,000 employees this week. Sarandos and Peters really seem to be grasping at what to do here, and, as often is the case at stalled media companies, they’ve decided to change the content leadership. Film chief Dan Lin is expected to join Bajaria on the firing line, though that hasn’t happened and will be her replacement’s decision.

According to two sources, taking Bela’s place will be Peter Rice, the producer and former Disney and Fox executive. Rice was in the top content job at Disney until he was fired in 2022 by then-C.E.O. Bob Chapek, who either felt threatened by Rice or didn’t think he was enough of a Disney team player. Erudite and respected by talent (he once ran the Fox Searchlight arthouse movie unit, and I just sat next to him at a Toronto screening of the Oscar contender Wild Horse Nine), Rice brings a notably different sensibility to Netflix than Bajaria, whose global television experience and preference for populist fare were seen as a way for Netflix to broaden its audience from its origins in HBO-style prestige dramas like House of Cards. But Rice has overseen wide swaths of Disney’s content studios and networks, and he managed the transition from Fox to Disney and the integration of thousands of employees, which could be valuable to Netflix if it tries to buy another studio. Like, say, NBCUniversal, which will soon be split off from Comcast. It’ll be interesting to see who Rice empowers to run the movie division.

https://puck.news/netflix-chief-content-officer-bela-bajaria-is-out/