Netflix Replaces Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice

Bela Bajaria's exit from the role of Chief Content Officer marks a notable shift in how Netflix organises its content leadership. Reports emerged that she is set to be succeeded in the role by Peter Rice, who previously held executive positions at both Disney and Fox. Under Rice's direction, Netflix's content apparatus — spanning scripted and unscripted series, films, live events, and every operating region — will function as a unified whole. Two departures from Netflix's film division have been confirmed — vice-president Doug Belgrad and director Sheroum Kim have both stepped away from their roles at the streaming company. Prior to joining Netflix in 2016, Bajaria held the presidency at Universal Television; her Netflix path took her from overseeing both unscripted and scripted content at the outset, through a promotion to global television leadership in 2020, and ultimately to the chief content officer role three years after that. The departing executive's exit coincides with a workforce reduction at Netflix that affected roughly 1,000 positions — about 6% of its total staff — marking the platform's most extensive round of job cuts on record. Her path to Netflix in 2016 came by way of a departure from NBCUniversal, where she had held the presidency of Universal Television. Working in that capacity, she had overseen the production of Netflix titles such as "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "Master of None," and it was Sarandos who brought Bajaria aboard to guide the platform's expansion into unscripted programming, alongside licensing arrangements and collaborative studio ventures. Two years before being appointed chief content officer in January 2023, Bajaria had taken on oversight of global television after Cindy Holland's departure from the company in 2020. During her tenure overseeing the platform, titles ranging from "Bridgerton," "Squid Game," "Adolescence," "Beef," "Stranger Things," and "Wednesday" on the television side to films including "KPop Demon Hunters" and "Frankenstein" reached audiences through Netflix, which also broadened its live sports and events programming in that span; Emmy recognition for the streamer stood at 16 awards in the most recent cycle, compared with 30 in the year prior and 44 five years earlier. In an internal staff communication, Sarandos acknowledged that the move represented a considerable shift arriving in a period that had already brought its share of disruption. Rice, a long-serving studio executive whose departure from Disney came during Bob Chapek's time leading the company, expressed a view in the statement that the North American market — where the streamer's slate has historically generated widely discussed titles — holds particular room for growth. His producing credits have since expanded to take in "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," "Warfare," and the forthcoming "Elden Ring" adaptation.

Netflix Replaces Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice

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Netflix Replaces Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice

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