Bela Bajaria's decade-long tenure as Netflix's chief content officer has come to an end, with the streamer moving to fill her position as part of a broader workforce reduction affecting around 1,000 employees. Peter Rice, who previously held leadership posts at both Disney and Fox, has been tapped for the position, according to a Thursday report.
In his new capacity as chief content officer, Rice will take charge of Netflix's worldwide content operation, spanning scripted and unscripted series, feature films, and live events, among other programming areas. Rice is set to assume the role on 26 October.
Reporting indicated that Bajaria had been let go, while Netflix film chief Dan Lin was also anticipated to depart — though that outcome remained contingent on a final decision by Rice. Doug Belgrad, who oversaw film operations, and director Sheroum Kim were among those whose positions were eliminated as part of the organisational restructuring, according to media reports.
Bajaria's departure came during the same period in which Netflix reduced its workforce by roughly 1,000 roles — approximately 6 percent of total headcount — a reduction described as the largest the company had carried out since 2022. A joint memo from co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos identified four parts of the organisation — technology, legal, product, and human resources — as the units where job cuts fell.
Those leadership changes arrived against a backdrop of the roughly 1,000 redundancies and a 2026 Primetime Emmy haul of 16 nominations for Netflix — a count that had fallen by nearly half from the 30 gathered the year before and stood as the platform's lowest return at that ceremony since 2016.
In a written statement, Sarandos credited Bajaria with steering the company through far-reaching transformation over her ten years there, describing her contributions as spanning creative, organisational, and strategic dimensions. The staff memo described the changes as a turning point in an already eventful year, with the executive noting that her work had helped expand the content portfolio — drawing in unscripted programming on a broad scale, alongside live events and sports, while overseeing a global slate of films and series — and expressing an intention to build on that foundation, particularly across the United States and Canada.
Bajaria's path to Netflix ran through NBCUniversal, where she had held the presidency of Universal Television before joining the streaming company in 2016. Her career at Netflix took her from helping to establish the company's unscripted programming arm to assuming oversight of global television by 2020, with the chief content officer role following in January 2023.
During her tenure, the streaming catalogue grew to include drama series such as "Bridgerton," "Stranger Things," and "Wednesday," the international phenomenon "Squid Game," and film titles including "KPop Demon Hunters," while the platform also expanded into live sports and events through agreements with the NFL and WWE.
At this year's Primetime Emmy Awards, Netflix collected 16 trophies — a total that placed the streamer at its lowest point in roughly a decade, trailing the 30 it gathered the previous year and well short of the 44 it accumulated during its peak run in 2021.
Rice previously held executive posts at both Disney and Fox. A decision made by Bob Chapek during his tenure as Disney's chief executive brought Rice's time at the company to an end in 2022, closing out a period in which Rice had held the chairmanship of both Walt Disney Television and the general entertainment division. Under his oversight, ABC, FX, Hulu, and National Geographic — along with several other properties — fell within his portfolio of responsibilities.
His subsequent projects included "Saturday Night" and "28 Years Later." Sarandos described Rice as among the most capable large-scale operators working in the entertainment industry.
