Ted Sarandos

Ted has led content acquisition for Netflix since 2000. With more than 20 years of experience in home entertainment, Ted is recognized in the industry as an innovator in film acquisition and distribution. He oversees a staff of more than 50 people who manage the company's content acquisition through relationships with studios, networks, film makers and producers. As Netflix grew to 7.5 million subscribers at the end of 2007, Ted established Netflix as a successful film distributor within the entertainment industry. During Ted's tenure, the Netflix library has increased from 2,000 to 90,000 titles on DVD and more than 7,000 movies and TV episodes available to watch instantly on the personal computer. Ted has also spearheaded the company's original content initiative, Red Envelope Entertainment, creating a national platform for films and entertainment programming through unique partnerships. Ted began his path managing a metropolitan retail video chain in Phoenix, Arizona and then moved to Entertainment Distributing (ETD), where he served as Western Regional Director of Sales and Operations. Until March 2000, Ted was Vice President of Product and Merchandising for Video City, where he negotiated the industry’s first DVD revenue sharing agreement and reduced the cost of content from all studios. Ted was the recipient of the Trailblazer Award from the Woodstock Film Festival in 2007, and was included in Variety magazine’s Global 50, a list of the 50 most influential people in independent film distribution. He is a member of the 2008 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.