Netflix Replaces Bela Bajaria as Chief Content Officer

Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer and a senior executive there for the last decade, is leaving the streaming service immediately, the company announced on Thursday.

Peter Rice, a former Fox and Disney executive, will take over as chief content officer next week, Netflix said.

The company made the abrupt, major leadership change as it confronts stalling engagement figures and slowing growth. A day earlier, Netflix laid off roughly 1,000 people, its biggest round of job cuts since 2022.

Netflix made an aggressive push late last year to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, but lost to Paramount Skydance in a bidding war. (Skydance, which is run by David Ellison, absorbed all of Warner Bros. Discovery last week, for $111 billion.) Over the last 12 months, Netflix’s share price has dropped nearly 40 percent.

“Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” Ted Sarandos, the company’s co-chief executive, said at a Bloomberg conference a few weeks ago.

On Thursday, he told staff in a memo: “It’s been an eventful series of days here, and I realize we’ve asked you to absorb a lot of news and a lot of information. But we all know change is what we do at Netflix.”

Mr. Sarandos praised Ms. Bajaria in the memo, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, for her tenure but also said he saw “an opportunity to take our slate to the next level,” particularly in the United States. Ever since “Stranger Things” wrapped up last year, Netflix has struggled finding another giant, global hit to succeed it.

Netflix’s share of television viewing time in the United States has dropped since last year, according to Nielsen, while a rival, YouTube, has seen its share increase.

Ms. Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 after a run at NBCUniversal, and rapidly climbed the executive ranks. At first she oversaw Netflix’s budding unscripted slate, programming series like “Queer Eye” and “Nailed It!” and proving that the streaming company could handle reality series as well as it could scripted fare like “House of Cards.”

In 2019, she took over international series, and then assumed all of Netflix’s television operations in 2020 when Mr. Sarandos dismissed Cindy Holland, one of the key architects of Netflix’s original programming strategy. Ms. Bajaria was given the title of chief content officer in 2023, overseeing all TV series and movies as well as the company’s forays into live events, sports and video podcasts.

She was informed earlier this week by Mr. Sarandos that she would be leaving the company, according to two people briefed on the conversation. Netflix was intending to announce her departure next week, but Puck, a newsletter covering Hollywood, reported the news Thursday afternoon. The memo from Mr. Sarandos was sent to employees soon after.

Mr. Rice spent roughly three decades working at Fox, and he had high-ranking executive positions working in both television and film.

He joined Disney after it acquired most of Fox’s entertainment properties in 2019, and oversaw its enormous television slate. He left Disney in 2022 after being pushed out by Bob Chapek, the company’s top executive at the time.

Since then, he has been producing film and television, most recently overseeing “The Social Reckoning,” which Sony Pictures released last week to disappointing box office numbers, and “Misty Green” from A24. He is also overseeing the opening ceremony efforts for the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

Industry players have often described him as “affable” and “elegant” — he grew up in South London — though others call him “inscrutable.” Mr. Rice is known to favor the Socratic method in work meetings, and is not afraid of an awkward pause.

“Peter is one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry,” Mr. Sarandos said in his memo. “His business acumen is sharp, his talent relationships are exceptionally strong, and his experience across both TV and film is deep and broad.”