Staff losses come as streamer faces investor pressure on engagement and growth
Netflix is cutting around 6% of its global workforce, equating to around 1,000 roles.
The move, which had been expected over the past week, will affect HR, product, tech and legal teams predominantly, and follows a tricky 12 months for the streamer, which at the end of 2025, had aroun 16,000 full time members of staff.
The company’s share price is 43% down over the past 12 months as investor concerns around engagement and slowing growth hit, amid increased competition for eyeballs from the likes of YouTube and TikTok.
Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, co-chief execs at Netflix, said in a memo to staff that the decision to cut the roles was part of a strategy to focus on its core operations.
“Decisions like these are never easy, and we don’t take them lightly. Our mission – to entertain the world – is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritise our people and resources.
“Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full-year forecast. We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high-impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation.”
However, the co-chief execs said that doing that required “focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors”.
Netflix, which last made major cuts to its team in 2022, has been looking to improve its subs growth and engagement by investing in live content, such as Alex Honnold’s Taipei 101 climb and sports.
Just yesterday the company revealed it was buying exclusive rights in Spain to the FIFA World Cup, which followed a move into baseball in Japan.
Sarandos and Peters looked to position the cuts as part of a reaction to “one of the most dynamic times in the history of entertainment”, adding that the current period is “perfectly suited” to a company “built at the intersection of technology and entertainment”.
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