Netflix's Bajaria on Global Content: 'I Let Them Do Their Job'

By Daniel Okafor

Netflix spends $20 billion a year on content, and Bela Bajaria claims her superpower is simply hiring well. "My superpower is I hire really great people and I let them do their job," the Netflix content chief said during a keynote conversation at Mipcom, the international television market running Oct. 12-15 in Cannes.

Bajaria spoke with Variety's co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton. She was in Cannes to accept the Vanguard Award from Variety and Mipcom. She has been at the streamer since 2016.

Her domain is vast: 27 local teams producing content in 50 languages for more than 50 countries. Managing that sprawl, it turns out, is mostly a personnel decision.

What's the strategy behind local content?

Bajaria laid out a local-first philosophy with unusual clarity. "What we really want is something that feels so authentic and local and specific," she said. "And when we do that, that's what resonates with the global audience."

The order of priorities matters. First, a show must land at home. "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," Bajaria explained. "And then amazing if other people connect with it, find it, share it, that's all gravy."

That's a deliberate inversion of the old export logic, where international content was an afterthought chasing a global average. Netflix is betting that specificity travels and generic doesn't.

How much money is actually on the table?

Real cash, not sentiment. The numbers Bajaria cited in Cannes:

• France: €250 million ($279 million) invested annually in film and TV.
• Mexico: $1 billion committed between 2025 and 2028.
• Overall content budget: $20 billion per year.

She was quick to add a caveat, calling Netflix a "financially disciplined" company. The streamer demonstrated as much when it pulled out of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery.

Was Warner Bros. ever a real temptation?

Bajaria framed the whole affair as optional. "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.

Owning a legacy studio, in other words, ranked somewhere below a good development slate. She said the pursuit never distracted from the core mission: "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."

The discipline reads as a statement of identity. Netflix considers its global production pipeline the business, not an accessory to it.

What comes next?

Bajaria's message to the Mipcom crowd was continuity: same investment, same local teams, same eye on the ball — "making great things that people love around the world." With the Mexico commitment running through 2028, that pipeline has dates attached.