It’s a weird time in Hollywood right now. The cinema is making a bit of a comeback, so streaming services are suffering a little. Like poor old Netflix.
According to Variety, Netflix is laying off around 1,000 employees, which represents 6% of its workforce. It will be the biggest layoff to date.
Apparently, most of the layoffs are in HR, product, technology and legal. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters told the staff via email this Wednesday. Variety posted a copy of the memo:
Team — We wanted to share that we are making a number of organizational changes and, as a result, we’ll be letting go of roughly 6% of our colleagues, with the greatest impact to our product, tech, legal, and HR teams.
Decisions like these are never easy, and we don’t take them lightly. Our top priority today is to support those who are leaving Netflix. The process will vary somewhat by country, but leaders will be connecting with impacted employees soon. If you are leaving, please know that we will support you throughout this transition and make sure you have as much clarity and context as possible. We also want to say thank you. What you’ve built, and the care you brought to Netflix, have made a lasting difference and we will always be grateful.
For the rest of the team, we know you have questions, too. Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources. Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full year forecast. We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation. Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors.
We know changes like this are tough, but let’s stay focused. This is one of the most dynamic times in the history of entertainment — and it’s a moment perfectly suited to a company like ours that’s built at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Now it’s on us to step up and meet the moment, together, like we always do.
Ted and Greg
Ted and Greg make them sound like your friends.
Money, Money, Money
Netflix is the business’s biggest streaming service, with over 325 million customers globally. In 2025, the company boasted growth, with revenue of £45 billion. OK, so that’s a good income.
However, last year, they had the finale of Stranger Things, easily the biggest series they have ever had. According to some reports, the last season cost between $400 – $480 million in total. An average of about $50 – $60 million per episode!
Just out of interest for this article, a quick search suggests that Sarandos has a net worth of around $200 million. His salary is about $50 million. Poor Peters’ net worth is $250 million, but he only takes home $25 million for his salary. How does he cope?
So the big wigs at the top are making all the big decisions, like spending $50 million for an hour-long episode of a TV show. However, it’s the workers that must go. I know I’m paraphrasing, but I do feel for the poor guys who read that email on Wednesday.
