A list of Netflix's highest-paid executives shows just how important content spending has become to the business.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made $24.4 million in 2017, up from $23.2 million in 2016. That's according to shareholder documents filed with the SEC on Monday.
The proxy filing also show that Ted Sarandos, chief content officer, made $22.4 million, up from $18.9 million the prior year. By contrast, chief product officer Greg Peters, who just took the role in July, made $9.2 million, up from $8 million the year prior (a similar pay range to his predecessor). Chief financial officer David Wells made $5.2 million, down from $6 million in 2016.
Sarandos' pay, which is quickly catching up to Hastings', comes a week after the company said it added more subscribers than Wall Street expected in the first quarter of the year. During an earnings call with analysts last week, Hastings emphasized the role of content over tech at the company.
"We'll spend over $10 billion on content and marketing and a billion-three on tech," Hastings said on the call.
"So, I mean, just objectively, we're much more of a media company in that way than pure tech. Of course, we want to be great at both. But, again, we're really pretty different from the pure tech companies."
Netflix also reimbursed Hastings nearly $760,000 last year for travel on his two planes. The median employee compensation was more than $183,300 last year, a ratio of 1 to 133 with Hastings' pay.
