Netflix's Ted Sarandos: The 'Evil Genius' Behind A TV Revolution

Netflix
Allowing subscribers to binge on TV series has made Netflix into a global brand. But company boss Ted Sarandos tells The Guardian that it isn't stopping there: by moving into making shows, he wants to change what we watch as well as how we watch it:

To get a sense of what the 49-year-old Arizonan is doing to TV culture, imagine that you've just finished watching episode five of Joss Whedon's Firefly on your laptop, courtesy of Netflix. You've got places to go, people to meet. But up pops a little box on screen saying the next episode starts in 12 seconds. Five hours later, you dimly realise that you've forgotten to pick up your kids from school and/or your boss has texted you 12 times wondering if you're planning to show up today.

Does he feel responsible for creating this binge culture, not just here but across the world (Netflix has 38 million subscribers in 40 countries, who watch about a billion hours of TV shows and films each month), I ask Sarandos when we meet in a London hotel? He laughs. "I love it when it happens that you just have to watch. It only takes that little bit of prodding."