Anna Daniels
Today in news that will surprise no one: Netflix viewership has only increased during the coronavirus outbreak. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has revealed that yes, people are watching more Netflix now that they’re stuck inside. But what about the future? Every current Netflix production has had to shut down, which might indicate we’re headed towards a content crunch. But according to Sarandos, current production issues won’t start affecting things until late 2020.
During an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources (via Deadline), Ted Sarandos stated the obvious: more people at home means more people watching Netflix. “You can imagine, all viewing is up,” said Sarandos. “It’s up on Netflix, on CNN on television in general. The system has been very robust and can help out a lot of people. People certainly are watching a lot more Netflix. As Governor [Andrew] Cuomo said so beautifully the best thing you can do is stay at home we are trying hard to help.”
Netflix has had to shut down all of its current productions, including Stranger Things season 4, due to the coronavirus outbreak across the globe. But Sarandos said that this current pause shouldn’t cut into any content for a while. “It’s been a massive disruption. Every one of our productions around the world is shut down. It’s unprecedented in history,” Sarandos said, and then added: “What’s happening now is we work pretty far ahead with delivering all the episodes of our shows at once so no disruption over the next few months, maybe later in the year as physical production is not operational.”
In other words, we’ll be okay…for a while. Right now there’s no clear indication of when all of this is going to end, so there’s no telling of when all the Netflix productions will get back on track. The Stranger Things shutdown is only supposed to last two weeks, for instance – but that could always change, depending on how the situation with the virus plays out.
That said, while we won’t be noticing any disruption on Netflix for the time being, it’s bound to cause a few hiccups down the road. Shows and movies currently on pause will likely have to shuffle their planned release dates. But let’s worry about that when it happens. One thing at a time, folks.
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