Netflix Cuts 1,000 Jobs as Content Chief Bajaria Exits

Netflix just announced its largest layoff in company history. One thousand workers—roughly 6% of its 16,000-person workforce—are being cut. The company's Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria, one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, is leaving after nearly a decade. The message is brutally clear: the path to streaming profitability runs through the severance line, not the writers' room.

Bajaria arrived at Netflix in 2016 as a refugee from NBCUniversal, where she'd built her reputation producing "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "Master of None." She helped Netflix launch an entire unscripted division and scale its co-production strategy. By January 2023, she was named chief content officer—the job that basically meant running the thing people actually want from Netflix. She held that position for barely two years.

Peter Rice, the former chairman of Walt Disney Television, will take over her entire global content operation starting October 26th. The cuts extend across product, technology, legal, and HR. They also hit PR, communications, and gaming. Netflix's film vice president Doug Belgrad got cut. So did film director Sheroum Kim. The restructuring touches everything.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos released the obligatory gratitude statement: "I want to thank Bela for a decade of dedication, innovation, creativity and leadership." Translation: she did good work. We're still cutting her loose. This is just business.

Netflix remains profitable and growing. The stock is down nearly 40% compared to a year ago. Viewership growth has slowed. So the company's answer isn't to make better shows or take creative risks. It's to eliminate 1,000 jobs and restructure the entire content apparatus. Fewer people in the room where it happens. Same amount of pressure to hit subscriber targets. Same expectation of innovation with less money and fewer hands.

This is what streaming's second act looks like. Not the revolution. The efficiency play.