Netflix lays off 6% of workforce

In total, 6% of the company’s workforce equates to roughly 1,000 of its 16,000 employees. According to an internal memo seen by Reuters, most of the cuts are taking place in the streamer’s product, technology, legal, and human-resources departments.

In the creative executive suite, Variety has confirmed that the cuts will also kick out: Doug Belgrad, Film VP; Lisa Lang McMullen, Director, Overall Deals, Series; Andrew McQuinn, Director, Original Series; James Oh, Director, Original Drama Series; and Jason Pan, Manager, Original Series Creative Development.

In the memo, reported by Variety, Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos said: “Team – We wanted to share that we are making a number of organisational changes and, as a result, we’ll be letting go of roughly 6% of our colleagues, with the greatest impact to our product, tech, legal, and HR teams.

“Decisions like these are never easy, and we don’t take them lightly. Our top priority today is to support those who are leaving Netflix. The process will vary somewhat by country, but leaders will be connecting with impacted employees soon. If you are leaving, please know that we will support you throughout this transition and make sure you have as much clarity and context as possible. We also want to say thank you. What you’ve built, and the care you brought to Netflix, have made a lasting difference, and we will always be grateful.

“For the rest of the team, we know you have questions, too. Our mission – to entertain the world – is ambitious, and delivering on ​it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritise our people ⁠and resources. Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full-year forecast. We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high-impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation. Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors.”

The cuts come as Netflix faces fierce competition for viewers from growing social media platforms and vertical content. Overall, the streamer’s share price has dropped more than 40% over the past year as Wall Street has increasingly scrutinised its viewer engagement, which increased only 2% over the first half of the year.

This metric has become a particularly important battlefield for the company as platforms like YouTube and TikTok provide free-to-watch, ‌user-generated content that rival Netflix’s historic ability to grow by adding pressure to traditional players like linear TV providers.

Demonstrating this change, Marc Heufelder, Country Manager, YouTube Product Partnerships DACH, revealed at IBC2026 that TV is officially YouTube’s leading and fastest‑growing platform globally for the 2.7 billion users it attracts every month. “The TV is no longer a passive box,” Heufelder said. “It’s an active multi‑format entertainment device.”

Building on this point, Evan Shapiro's rapid-fire talent programme keynote on the Future Tech Ignite stage highlighted that a shrinking minority of consumers are watching hours of traditional TV, and that even for under-55-year-olds, the top two content sources are YouTube and TikTok. “None of the traditional TV players is in the top four; the only one is Netflix,” said Shapiro. “In the UK, Instagram is beating the BBC for total attention.” He concluded that social media and creators are more trusted than traditional news, and to win in this attention economy, traditional news must lean into the creator economy and direct the narrative. “This is what I call personalised TV,” added Shapiro. “BBC iPlayer is in this continuum, but so is TikTok. Traditional TV is sunsetting on purpose as we switch to digital.”

Netflix recently named Jay Hoag as Chairman of ‌its board, succeeding the streaming service’s Co-Founder, Reed Hastings. Discover more here.