Netflix’s fabled “cultural platform,” which over the years has taken on Magna Carta importance in tech and business circles, has received a few updates that reflect the streaming giant’s current circumstances.
The document, which is based on a PowerPoint platform created by co-founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings, lays out the precepts that guide employee priorities and the company’s overall approach. It has been publicly published for years, reviewed at various intervals, and viewed more than 20 million times. Its section headings (“Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled,” “Disagree Then Compromise”) echo some of the pillars of the company’s uniquely articulated culture. Hastings elaborated on many of those principles in his 2020 book, no rules rules.
In a section called “Judgment,” a new bullet point is worded in the imperative tense: “You spend our members’ money wisely.” At a current level estimated at $20 billion in 2022, Netflix’s content spending is under close scrutiny after the company posted its first subscriber decline in more than a decade in the first quarter and indicated further losses in the quarter. current quarter. More than two-thirds of its market value has vanished in the last six months. While the company is unlikely to radically cut its spending, management has signaled a new commitment to trim the fat and some shows and employees have already been laid off as that process begins.
Another recently updated section, “Artistic Expression,” obliquely references recent controversies over titles such as beauties or the Dave Chappelle Comedy Special the closer. The latter, released last fall, drew a fierce backlash and large-scale walkout from employees upset over Chappelle’s broadsides against transgender people. Netflix has resisted calls to have the special removed from its service.
“Entertaining the world is an incredible opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view,” the section says. Ratings, content warnings and parental controls are tools intended to help subscribers avoid content that may upset them, the document adds.
“Not everyone will like, or agree with, everything on our service,” he continues. “While each title is different, we approach them based on the same set of principles: We support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with; we program for diversity of audiences and tastes; and we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, rather than Netflix censoring specific artists or voices.”
Variety reported for the first time on the update of the document.