Netflix is losing the battle for your screen time

Netflix has replaced its chief content officer a day after cutting about a thousand jobs, its biggest layoffs since 2022, as the world’s largest streaming service struggles to hold viewers’ attention against YouTube and TikTok.

The company said on Thursday it had appointed former Disney executive Peter Rice as chief content officer, succeeding Bela Bajaria, who is leaving after nearly a decade at Netflix. Rice will oversee Netflix’s content strategy from 26 October, including series, films and live events across regions. He was previously chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of general entertainment at The Walt Disney Company.

Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 and was named chief content officer in January 2023. During her tenure, Netflix released pop-culture hits such as Bridgerton and Squid Game and expanded into live programming through multi-year partnerships with WWE and the NFL.

On Wednesday, Netflix told staff it was laying off about 6% of its workforce, or roughly a thousand people, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC . The cuts fall mainly on the product, technology, legal and human resources teams, CNBC reported. Netflix had about 16 000 full-time employees at the end of 2025, according to TechCrunch .

“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,” co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters wrote in the memo.

In a statement, Netflix said it remained on track to deliver its full-year forecast and would continue to invest in high-impact areas.

“Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” Serandos told Bloomberg’s Screentime conference on 30 September. Viewing on Netflix grew by only 2% in the first half of 2026, to more than 97 billion hours, according to NBC News.

Netflix’s problem is attention. Investors increasingly judge the company on engagement, and platforms such as YouTube and TikTok are attracting viewers with free, user-generated content that gives them a cost advantage over Netflix.

In the US, YouTube accounted for a record 14.2% of all TV viewing in July, against Netflix’s 7.8%, according to Nielsen data reported by Media Play News .

Netflix’s troubles are relative. It had more than 325 million paid members at the end of 2025 and has spent more than US$135-billion on films and series over the past decade.

South Africa shows how much harder it is for a streamer without that scale. Showmax launched in August 2015, five months before Netflix arrived in the country, and built its early following on local hits such as Tali’s Wedding Diary . A 2023 partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal brought it Peacock’s technology, HBO content and live English Premier League football. Even so, MultiChoice pulled the plug after Showmax’s trading losses climbed from R2.6-billion in the year to March 2024 to R4.9-billion a year later. New owner Canal+ called it an “ expensive failure “, and the service shut down on 30 April .

Showmax’s parent has fared little better.