FX chief: “Netflix could gain power over creativity”
August 10, 2016
By Chris Forrester
The head of the FX channel, John Landgraf, speaking at a Television Critics Association event hosted by FX on August 9th, said that of some 500 original scripted series that the channel’s research department was aware of, by FX’s count Netflix has 71 of those series in its planning, and this excludes foreign language productions.
He warned that this could end up with Netflix exerting monopoly power over the industry, and compared the rapid rise of Netflix with that of – the now – single domination of players such as Google’s search engine, Facebook in social media and PayPal in online payment.
Nevertheless, Landgraf was full of praise for what Netflix, Amazon and other new players were turning out in terms of quality TV, and cited Netflix’s award-winning comedy-drama series, Master of None, as a personal favourite.
“It’s a point of real emotional meaning to me — storytelling and storytellers have a unique place in our society and in human culture. We are the only animal that tells stories,” he argued, and during his presentation said there should be far more females and minorities working behind the camera both at his own channel and at the other major networks.