Netflix added more than 5.5 million subscribers last quarter. It will spend as much as $8 billion on content next year.
Yes, that’s Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wearing an ugly Christmas sweater on his earnings call
Guess why?
Credit: Screengrab from Netflix YouTube video
Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
But we’re not writing about that now. We’re writing about Reed Hastings. And his sweater.
Which is what the Netflix CEO wants us to write about. Since he and the rest of his executive team donned “Stranger Things”-themed light-up sweaters at the end of their Q3 earnings call today.
Scroll ahead to the 40-minute mark if you want to see for yourself:
Why? Theoretically, because the second season of “Stranger Things” starts Oct. 27, and Hastings wanted to remind us about that. And the fact that we can buy “Stranger Things” light-up sweaters from Target for $33 a pop. (Note: No affiliate links were used in the production of this blog post.)
But Netflix doesn’t need to remind anyone about “Stranger Things” — it’s a giant hit for the streaming service, and one it is already promoting extensively.
Let’s just chalk this one up to the fact that Hastings is partial to goofy sweaters — he wore one in a 2015 call, to promote “BoJack Horseman,” which did need a push — and that Netflix stock is at an all-time high.
And, yes, it’s fun to write about goofy sweaters.
And, no, we’re not buying one.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
