Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters, Asked if Company Is Interested in Buying Warner Bros. Discovery, Says ‘Big Media Mergers Don’t Have an Amazing Track Record’
Will Netflix pursue a large-scale media M&A play? Don’t bet on it.
Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix, downplayed the company’s desire to grow through a major acquisition, speaking Wednesday evening at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in L.A. Peters was asked by moderator Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg’s managing editor for media and entertainment, if there was any truth to rumors that Netflix was interested in making a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
“I would say this: We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers,” Peters responded. He continued, “One should have a reasonable amount of skepticism around big media mergers — they don’t have an amazing track record over time.”
Said Peters, “Our job is to figure out, ‘What is the best way to grow our business?’” If a major acquisition is “the best way to grow our business, great. If not, we should do something else.”
Chatter circulated about Netflix’s supposed interest in WBD after news broke that David Ellison, just weeks after closing the $8 billion deal to form Paramount Skydance, is kicking around a possible bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety.
After Shaw asked Peters about Netflix now competing with “the second-richest person in the world” — a reference to Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who largely funded the Skydance Media deal to acquire Paramount Global — Peters said, “It’s fun to have some new vigor in the competitive ecosystem. It’s exciting, keeps everyone on their toes.” But, he said, “it doesn’t change the business fundamentals.” Asked whether Paramount Skydance bid “irrationally” in clinching a $7.7 billion deal for UFC rights over seven years, Peters noted that Netflix is constantly competing in bids for content rights. If Netflix is outbid, Peters said his feeling is, “Go with God and try to monetize the heck outta that.”
About YouTube, Peters said, “for sure, they’re a competitor, of course.” But he said YouTube is an “orthogonal” rival, in that its mostly user-generated content model is fundamentally different from Netflix’s. “Orthogonal competition is the hardest” to track, he said. Peters said Netflix wants to invest in projects from creators, whether they come from YouTube, TikTok or elsewhere, and help “find the biggest global audience for them.”
Peters also announced that Netflix is expanding games available on TVs with a new slate of “party games,” which you play using your smartphone as a controller. Those titles, set to come to the service this holiday season, include “Boggle Party,” “Pictionary: Game Night,” “Tetris Time Warp,” “Lego Party” and “Party Crashers: Fool Your Friends.” Overall, Peters gave Netflix’s games initiative, which it launched in late 2021, a “B-” grade. He recalled that when Netflix first launched in Japan, just 2% of the country’s consumers had even heard of the company. Netflix’s current situation with games and interactive programming, he said, “is not dissimilar to that.”
Peters was asked whether Netflix would have made more money if it had given animated smash hit “KPop Demon Hunters,” the services most-viewed movie to date, a theatrical run. “I don’t think so, at the end of the day,” Peters said. “It’s worked incredibly well for us.” Any box office upside from “KPop Demon Hunters,” he suggested, would not be a reason to deviate from Netflix’s strategy of mostly streaming-first releases. Asked if Netflix had any plans to syndicate programing to third parties, Peters said, “I doubt it… I’m not sure why we would do it.”
Meanwhile, last week billionaire Elon Musk kicked off a concerted “cancel Netflix” campaign on his X social platform, urging people to ditch the streamer over the company’s perceived “woke” bias, including some kids’ shows on the platform that depict transgender characters.
Peters did not directly address Musk’s anti-Netflix initiative. But he spoke about the fact that there is certain programming on the service that “people don’t like” — which he said stems from the fact that Netflix is creating content for an audience approaching 1 billion people worldwide. “If we’re doing it right, there’s something on the service [some people] think is not great, that they don’t like or think is maybe harmful. That’s the business we’re in,” Peters said.
For the first two quarters of the year, Netflix topped Wall Street expectations on revenue and earnings. As of the the first quarter of 2025, the company no longer regularly reporting subscriber counts, with the company wanting to focus on financials and user engagement. In reporting Q2 results, Netflix increased its revenue forecast for full-year 2025 to a range of $44.8 billion to $45.2 billion (previously $43.5 billion to $44.5 billion), which would represent 15%-16% year-over-year growth, primarily because of the recent depreciation of the U.S. dollar. The company is scheduled to report Q3 earnings Oct. 21 after market close.
Peters was named Netflix co-CEO — alongside Ted Sarandos — in January 2023 after Reed Hastings stepped down from the role. Previously, Peters was chief product officer and chief operating officer.
