Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Tech Conf 2025: NFLX Co-CEO Greg Peters on Content, Product, Live, Ads, and AI

Key Takeaways

TL;DR: NFLX is driving durable top-line & margin growth via compounding gains in content quality, product UX, and monetization—leveraging global scale, ongoing product innovation (incl. GenAI), ads & live (sports/events) expansion, and strategic gaming/creator economy plays. Mgmt flagged rising engagement, strong early UI/ad stack results, and major int’l/cross-vertical opps, w/ disciplined investment & pricing set to outpace global streaming peers.

1. Core Biz Priorities & Strategic Direction

• Unified mgmt: Both co-CEOs focused on 3 pillars—better content (diverse, high-quality), improved product (UI/UX), optimized commerce (pricing, subs, ads).
• Content investment: $18B content spend, targeted slate, focus on variety/quality to drive engagement & LT retention.
• Global scale: NFLX’s reach enables big hits (e.g., KPop Demon Hunters), unique cultural impact (“NFLX Effect”).
• Quote: "Priority one is we have to take what we call, the core business... and make that continually better."

2. Recent Execution / Op KPIs

• Record launches:
  • Happy Gilmore 2 set US Nielsen opening wknd record (2.9B min viewed).
  • KPop Demon Hunters: 266M global views in 11 wks, 80%+ K-pop merch sales surge, major cultural impact.
• Engagement momentum:
  • 1H25 engagement up, “back-weighted slate.”
  • July: +40bps US engagement (Nielsen), new high; +140bps UK (Barb).
• Content/product synergy: UI/UX gains “multiply” content ROI; 10% UI boost = 10% content spend.

3. Product & UX Innovation (Incl. Live)

• New UX:
  • Rolled out to ~80% TV devices; outperformed testing.
  • Built for on-demand & live/programmed (e.g. Canelo vs. Crawford), unlocking new engagement/monetization.
  • Dynamic, personalized discovery.
• Live as lever:
  • Expanding live (sports, music, comedy, awards) w/ focus on shared moments & economic discipline (e.g., WBC in Japan, NFL, Roast of Tom Brady).