Paradigm Shifters

People who are using technology to change the cultural conversation

Globalizing Streaming Content

BELA BAJARIA — HEAD OF GLOBAL TV, NETFLIX

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED that the breakout hits on American television this year would be Squid Game, a survival story from Korea, and Lupin, a French thriller about a Black gentleman thief? Even Bela Bajaria says there was no way to predict it. But as the head of global television at Netflix, it’s her job to find the next big show— and if it comes from an unexpected corner of the planet, all the better.

“There has been this pervasive idea that only Hollywood exports stories, which I find really limits who gets to tell those stories,” Bajaria says. “We’re pushing beyond that and opening the doors to creators of all different types around the world.”

Netflix is the world’s largest streaming service, which makes Bajaria one of the most influential programmers in television. Show by show, she and her colleagues are changing our viewing diet. In the last two years, the company says American viewing of non-English language programs has grown 67 percent. Viewing of Japanese anime in the U.S. has doubled; so-called K-dramas from Korea have tripled. Competitors say they’ve seen similar trends—shows from one country doing remarkably well elsewhere.

COVID-19 has obviously played a role: People hunkered down at home and looked for interesting things to watch. If a series from Germany or Mexico trended on TikTok or turned up on best-shows-to-binge-on lists, people binged on it. Netflix makes it easy to cross borders; it dubs shows in 34 languages and offers subtitles in 37. Subscribers can see a larger slice of the world as a result.