Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was worried ‘House of Cards’ would get him fired. Here's why

Ted Sarandos feared his $100 million gamble on House of Cards could end his career, but it became a massive success.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos was worried that his $100 million gamble on the political thriller House of Cards could end his career. Ted Sarandos recalled a conversation he had with his wife, film producer Nicole Avant, who asked if he could lose his job over his decision to approve the series. He told her, “Well, it’s fireable." Although House of Cards went on to become a huge hit as.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos initially worried that approving House of Cards could jeopardize his career. The series succeeded, boosting Netflix's market value to over $300 billion. Sarandos highlights growth potential beyond 277.7 million subscribers and discusses AI's role as a creator's tool.(Reuters)

Netflix now has a market value of over $300 billion and expects to spend $17 billion this year on programming. Ted Sarandos said the company still has room to grow beyond its 277.7 million global subscribers as he said, “You could double that and still not be halfway to what the pay television universe was."

Ted Sarandos joined Netflix in 2000, three years after its founding. The company launched its streaming service in 2007. Ted Sarandos said, “One of the motivators to make our own content was I was pretty sure that if we were right, that all of these people who were supplying us their old shows would never sell to us.”

On Netflix using algorithms to recommend new programs to customers globally, he said, “I don’t think a human would have decided to do that." On artificial intelligence replacing actors and writers, he said, “I really mostly think of AI as a creator’s tool, not a creative tool. We’re not using it to tell stories instead of them.”