Netflix Inc.’s head of original programming defended the streaming service’s strategy on Sunday, answering skeptics who have questioned its massive volume of content.
“Quality and quantity are not mutually exclusive.” Cindy Holland, Netflix executiveDespite churning out about 700 original series and movies this year, Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice president of original series, told TV critics that the company is maintaining quality by hiring the best people.
“We are maintaining quality as we grow by hiring brilliant talent who are passionate about the stories they want to tell and giving them creative space,” she said at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., Reuters reported.
This year, Netflix NFLX, -2.17% for the first time earned more Emmy Award nominations — 112 — than any other network or streaming service.
Holland also shed some insight on how Netflix makes programming decisions but relying not on demographics but on “taste communities” — viewers who tend to watch the same types of shows.
“Demographics aren’t a good indicator of what people like to watch,” she said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “There are connections between content types … unintuitive things.”
In terms of programming, Holland was tight-lipped on when the final season of “House of Cards” will air, and when — or if — it might renew Emmy-nominated “GLOW” for a third season. She did reveal that the next season of the hit show “Stranger Things” won’t appear until next summer, and that Netflix would be open to another season of Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None.”
“House of Cards” was thrown into turmoil after sexual-misconduct allegations against star Kevin Spacey, who was fired from the show, and Ansari was embroiled in a sexual misconduct controversy earlier this year.
Netflix shares have slipped more than 9% over the past month after second-quarter subscriber growth numbers came up short, but are still up 85% year to date, compared to the S&P 500’s 5.4% SPX, -0.66% gain this year.
