Netflix has replaced its Chief Content Officer in the middle of the largest round of layoffs in the company's history. Bela Bajaria, who has run Netflix's global content operation since January 2023, is leaving after nearly a decade at the company, and former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice will take over the role — inheriting oversight of every series, film and live event the streamer makes.
Variety reports that Bajaria's departure closes a run that began when she joined Netflix in 2016 to lead its unscripted slate. She departs on October 26, the same day Rice starts, and she leaves behind a slate that defined the streaming era: Stranger Things, Wednesday, Bridgerton, Squid Game, KPop Demon Hunters and the push into live events and sports with WWE and the NFL. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos thanked her for leading "enormous changes at Netflix," and described Rice as "one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry," adding that "he understands what makes stories resonate."
The leadership change landed one day after the layoffs. Deadline reports that Netflix cut about 1,000 employees, roughly 6 percent of its workforce, in cuts announced to staff on October 14 in a memo from Sarandos and co-CEO Greg Peters. The reductions hit product, technology, legal and human resources hardest, and the content side was not spared — executives on the unscripted casting and development teams were among those let go. It is Netflix's largest round of layoffs to date, even as the memo framed the business as strong, growing and on track to meet its full-year forecast.
Rice arrives with one of the deepest traditional television and film résumés in the industry. He previously served as Chairman of Walt Disney Television and CEO of Fox Networks Group, and as president of 21st Century Fox. Earlier in his career he ran Fox Searchlight Pictures, the specialty label behind Slumdog Millionaire, Juno and Little Miss Sunshine. Disney's then-CEO Bob Chapek ousted him in 2022, and he has little direct streaming experience — a gap that makes his appointment a bet on old-school programming instincts at a company built on data.
The shakeup did not happen in a vacuum. Netflix's share price has fallen sharply over the past year, engagement growth has slowed, and a widely shared Bloomberg report recently highlighted how many of the streamer's biggest series are losing more than half their audience after their first seasons. Sarandos has acknowledged growth below his expectations, and he told staff he saw scope to improve the programming lineup, particularly in the United States and Canada.
For viewers, the change reaches further than the executive floor. The Chief Content Officer signs off on the entire global slate — and that includes Netflix's anime strategy, which the company deepened in April with a strategic partnership making it the exclusive streamer for a slate of future original anime from studio MAPPA. That pipeline, along with everything else Netflix greenlights, now runs through Peter Rice.
