Bela Bajaria oversees 27 local teams around the world who produce content in 50 different languages for more than 50 countries. The secret to the Netflix content chief’s success is finding the right people — and letting them shine.
“My superpower is I hire really great people and I let them do their job,” Bajaria said during a keynote conversation at international confab Mipcom with Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton. The formidable exec, who has been at the powerhouse streamer since 2016, was in Cannes to accept the Vanguard Award from Variety and Mipcom.
During her conversation with Littleton, she discussed the streamer’s industry-leading approach to local content. “What we really want is something that feels so authentic and local and specific,” Bajaria explained. “And when we do that, that’s what resonates with the global audience. So I think the goal is to do something deeply local. And what we want — first and foremost for those country offices and those country teams — is that it resonates with the audience in that country. They love it. It is made for them. It’s their favorite show or movie on Netflix. And then amazing if other people connect with it, find it, share it, that’s all gravy. But we have the investment in those countries, in that language, in those cultural specificities, because we want them to resonate first locally.”
And when Bajaria talks about investment, she means real cash. In France, she points out, Netflix invests €250 million ($279 million) annually on film and TV while in Mexico the streamer recently committed to spending a billion dollars between 2025 and 2028.
But, she reminded the audience, Netflix, despite its $20 billion annual content budget, is a “financially disciplined” company – something that was clear when the streamer pulled out of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. For Bajaria, the brief opportunity to own a legacy studio didn’t distract from her core mission.
“For us, for Warner Brothers, it was always a nice to have at a certain price, and it was never a must-have at any price,” she said, echoing Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “I think the great thing is, even when we were having those conversations, the goal for my team and for Netflix, making film and series around the world, was even if that happens, we’re still going to keep doing this. The same investment. We’re going to continue to do this, eye on the ball, making great things that people love around the world.”
Mipcom runs Oct. 12-15 in Cannes.