22 Facts About Ted Sarandos

Ted Sarandos is the fourth of five children, with three older sisters and a younger brother.

Ted Sarandos was promoted to store manager of the Arizona Video Cassettes West chain in 1983 and managed eight retail video stores until 1988.

In 1988, Sarandos became Western Regional Director of Sales and Operations for one of the largest video distributors in the United States, East Texas Distributors.

Ted Sarandos serves as its co-chief executive officer and chief content officer, overseeing Netflix's original programming and entertainment efforts.

Ted Sarandos is a member of the Peabody Awards board of directors, which is presented by the University of Georgia's Henry W Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Ted Sarandos was responsible for initiating the first round of original programming at Netflix, starting with Lilyhammer, and then continuing with the breakout David Fincher series starring Kevin Spacey, House of Cards.

Ted Sarandos sees the focus as being on subscriber growth as a reflection of revenue health over ratings.

Ted Sarandos uses algorithms at Netflix to predict what programs viewers will want to watch prior to producing them.

Ted Sarandos said that the preference is for a show to run for multiple seasons and build a fan base.

Ted Sarandos believes the model allows the viewer to be in control, and to watch only the content they enjoy.

Ted Sarandos sees cost per hour basis as greater the more total run time there is across the lifetime of a show, as it is often not cost savings to produce less original content once production is underway.

Ted Sarandos said the comparison of TV network ratings to Netflix isn't meaningful as the typical Netflix release model of pushing out content is full season availability at once.

Ted Sarandos said Netflix aggregates audiences over a very long period of time, where Netflix can tell if a show will be successful by using a regression models that tells Netflix, based on the first hour of viewing, how successful the show will be over the life of its license.

Ted Sarandos has been outspoken about discarding or not holding important traditional network models.

Ted Sarandos said he sees the new model as a way to prioritize the needs and desires of the consumer.

Ted Sarandos has said that he sees Netflix as a digital product, where the balance between distributing physical bits of content versus streaming digital content would be cheaper as both broadband and Netflix grew.

Ted Sarandos set up a multi-picture deal with Adam Sandler, which was met with criticism.

In defense, Ted Sarandos said that the numbers make sense, something he characterizes as "data-influenced intuition," and that Sandler has a global appeal.

Ted Sarandos characterized Sandler's 2015 film The Ridiculous 6 as successful, saying it garnered the highest number of Netflix viewers streaming a film within the first 30 days of its release.

In terms of volume, Ted Sarandos said that Netflix will be showing over 600 hours of original programming in 2016.

In 2022, Ted Sarandos was named "Entertainment Person of the Year" at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in recognition for his work in entertainment marketing and communications.

In 2009, Sarandos married former United States Ambassador to the Bahamas, Nicole Avant, the daughter of former Motown Chairman Clarence Avant.