This is the second installment of my Spring Sellers’ Guide — the first covered Apple TV. I host Ankler Agenda and wrote about millennials’ challenges and Gen Z’s entry pains in the current Hollywood jobs landscape, and I reported on Taylor Frankie Paul and Disney’s Bachelorette mess.
Happy Monday and congrats to SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP for striking a tentative deal. The Directors Guild is up next at the bargaining table on May 11. Performers, how are you feeling about the new contract? Tell me at elaine@theankler.com
But for now, it’s time for today’s installment of my Spring Sellers’ Guide, in which I break down what each major streaming service and broadcast network wants to buy right now, how much they’re looking to spend on projects, and which creative executives you’re likely to encounter in a pitch meeting or general and what to know about them.
Where Apple TV is a fancy boutique that sells pricey artisanal Gouda from famous cheesemongers, Netflix is Walmart. It sells artisanal cheese yes — but next to children’s bicycles and women’s sweatpants. And that’s not a bad thing. This ethos of offering something for everyone has made the streamer a household staple for more than 325 million global subscribers.
But if you’re a writer or producer, that breadth of mandates can make refining your next pitch to Netflix a head-scratcher. What do you conjure up for a streaming service that already has everything?
While last summer Netflix lost one of its OG programmers, Peter Friedlander, who left the streamer after 14 years before joining Amazon MGM Studios, the company’s programming sensibilities have not taken any drastic turns under content chief Bela Bajaria.
“I don’t know that Netflix has changed substantially in what they’re trying to do since he left because they’re trying to program so many things for everyone,” one TV lit agent tells me. What all five different agents across firms big and small do know? While Netflix still wants female-driven thrillers, action series and YA shows (i.e. the usual), “there’s more of an openness to taking calculated swings,” the agent adds.
And I’ve got more on what those swings are.
Today, I reveal:
- Five execs reps admire, including one rising star, one “relentless” advocate and one with “buzzy, chic” titles in the pipeline
- Who’s got greenlight power under Bajaria
- A new approach to development at Netflix that “no other streamer is doing,” and the exec leading that charge
- Three genres of drama in demand, plus “a huge priority” on faith-based fare
- Comedy concepts that are working and the viewer demo Netflix is hoping to serve with more laffers
- The pricey category Netflix is still open to that’s a no-go zone for all other streamers
- Why the door is (finally) opening for original ideas at Netflix and across town and the creators who stand to benefit the most
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