Netflix has named Peter Rice as its next chief content officer, putting the former Disney and Fox executive in charge of its global programming operation days after the company announced one of its largest workforce reductions in years.
The company said Rice will start on October 26 and will replace Bela Bajaria, who is leaving after nearly 10 years at Netflix. Bajaria had most recently led Netflix’s global content team and was named chief content officer in January 2023.
Rice takes over a wider content machine
In Netflix’s announcement, the company said Rice will oversee scripted and unscripted series, film, live events and more across all regions. That gives him control of the programming engine behind Netflix’s core streaming service at a time when the company is also pushing into live events, sports and other formats designed to hold audience attention.
Netflix’s second-quarter shareholder letter shows why the role now carries pressure beyond picking the next hit series. The company told investors that entertainment value is not only about viewing hours, but also about quality, variety and quantity. Netflix reported more than 97 billion member viewing hours in the first half of 2026, up 2% year over year.
The same letter also showed the tradeoffs Netflix is weighing. The company said live programming was expected to account for just over 5% of content spend in 2026, but only about 1% of view hours. That does not mean live events are failing; Netflix has said different types of content serve different goals, including acquisition, retention and making the service feel more valuable. It does show that Rice is taking over a slate where the value of a title is not measured by viewing time alone.
The layoffs were not mainly described as content cuts
The Associated Press reported on October 14 that Netflix planned to cut about 6% of its workforce, or nearly 1,000 positions. AP and Axios both reported that the job cuts would mostly affect product, technology, legal and human resources, rather than content production roles. Separately, Netflix confirmed on October 19 that film chief Dan Lin was leaving. Rice will oversee the film team until a successor is named.
Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos told employees that Netflix needed to be disciplined about how it prioritizes people and resources while investing in future growth. Netflix’s October 20 results showed third-quarter revenue of $12.9 billion, up 12% year over year, and an updated 2026 revenue forecast of $51.1 billion. The company said costs tied to the job cuts would reduce its forecast fourth-quarter operating margin by about 1.2 percentage points.
Netflix is not replacing its content chief from a position of collapse; it is making the change while trying to protect momentum, defend engagement and choose where future spending should go.
Bajaria leaves after a major global expansion
Sarandos credited Bajaria in Netflix’s announcement with broadening the company’s content offering, including a large expansion of unscripted programming and the launches of live events and sports, alongside a global slate of films and series.
Her tenure also coincided with Netflix’s rise as a major platform for non-English programming. Netflix’s second-quarter shareholder letter said non-English content again drove more than one-third of viewing in the first half of 2026, with the company pointing to titles from Korea, Japan, Spain and India.
That global footprint is now part of Rice’s inheritance. Netflix is no longer just competing with other subscription video services for shows and films. It is competing for time against YouTube, social video, games, sports and live entertainment, while also trying to keep its paid streaming business growing.
Why Peter Rice is a different kind of appointment
Rice is not a streaming-native promotion from inside Netflix. The company said he was most recently chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of general entertainment for The Walt Disney Company, overseeing a portfolio that included ABC, Fox Broadcasting, FX Networks, Hulu, National Geographic, Disney Channel and Twentieth Television, with more than 300 shows and 4,000 hours of television a year.
Before Disney, Rice was president of 21st Century Fox, CEO of Fox Networks Group and president of Fox Searchlight Pictures. His credits place him closer to the traditional studio and television network system than to the Silicon Valley side of Netflix’s culture.
That background suggests Netflix is putting a studio-and-network operator over a content organization that has spent years balancing global scale, data-driven commissioning, event programming and prestige titles. At its October 20 earnings interview, Sarandos said Netflix saw no need for a fundamental strategy shift, but wanted better execution in the U.S. Specific changes to the slate, film strategy or live programming under Rice have not been announced.
What Netflix said after the shake-up
At its October 20 earnings interview, Netflix executives fielded questions about Rice’s appointment and the layoffs. Co-CEO Greg Peters said the company had overinvested in some areas and needed to redirect resources toward future growth. CFO Spence Neumann did not quantify the expected 2027 expense impact of the reductions.
For viewers, no immediate catalogue change has been announced. Rice does not start until October 26, and content changes would likely show up through future commissioning, renewals, acquisitions and event decisions rather than an overnight change in the app. For Netflix staff, creators and competitors, the shift is more immediate: the person making many of those long-range content calls is changing just as Netflix is cutting jobs and tightening priorities.
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