Netflix Inc. is replacing its chief creative officer with a veteran TV and film executive, Peter Rice, accelerating efforts to reinvigorate growth and reverse a slowdown in viewers and revenue at the streaming giant.
Rice previously served as chairman of general entertainment at Walt Disney Co., and, before that, as president of 21st Century Fox. He assumes the new role on Oct. 26, with a broad mandate, overseeing scripted and unscripted series, film and live events across all regions. Rice replaces Bela Bajaria, who had worked at Netflix for 10 years and come to be the public face of the company’s content strategy.
The executive shakeup, coupled with Wednesday’s layoffs of some 1,000 workers or 6% of the workforce, are a sign that the streaming industry leader is trying to reinvent itself after seeing its audience growth slow and stock price tumble.
The service has grown to more than 325 million subscribers globally. But it has evolved from a producer of “prestige TV” shows like House of Cards and The Crown to a broader entertainment source, competing with everything from sports channels to YouTube videos, and doing so on a global basis.
In moving Rice into the role, Netflix’s senior leadership see an opportunity to install an executive with deep relationships to Hollywood talent and experience running a broad portfolio of channels and streaming services. At Fox and later at Disney, he supervised a TV lineup that included hits from The Simpsons to Modern Family.
Recent Netflix shows have seen their audiences decline in their second seasons. The service saw its Emmy Awards wins fall to a 10-year low in 2026. The stock, which has lost about 23% of its value this year, fell 1.1% in extended trading.
Netflix co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos, speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles last month, acknowledged that the company isn’t growing as fast as he would like. While the company has been expanding into live sports and podcasts, the vast majority of Netflix’s roughly $20 billion programming budget goes to films, TV shows and video games.
“Peter is one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry,” Sarandos said in a statement Thursday. “He understands what makes stories resonate, and he’s spent his career helping talent do the best work of their lives.”
Bajaria was credited with broadening Netflix’s entertainment offerings by expanding its unscripted portfolio and striking a deal with the TKO Group Holdings Inc.to bring the WWE’s weekly wrestling show, Raw, to the streaming service. She memorably described the ideal Netflix program as a “gourmet cheeseburger” — something that combines quality and broad appeal.
“Losing Bela Bajaria is a big change, but Peter Rice is very well regarded in the industry,” Alicia Reese, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said by email. “To us, this is a step forward, or at least a shift in direction.”
Netflix’s shift from a streaming service to a platform with more varied content fits Rice’s experience well, Reese said. His experience consolidating Fox’s entertainment assets with Disney suggests that Netflix may look at other acquisitions, such as NBCUniversal when it becomes available, after being outbid by Skydance Corp. for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. earlier this year.
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