Netflix clears $ 100 million against image damage
Streaming service Netflix pays $ 100 million to a fund for diversity, but also mainly to improve their own image.
Inclusion and diversity are hot topics nowadays and Netflix is going along with it very hard. The streaming service pays $ 100 million, about € 83 million, for the Fund for Creative Equity. The money in the fund can then be used to process more diversity in Netflix content. But is there more going on behind the scenes?
Netflix lacks diversity
Netflix (and the entire film industry) has been under considerable pressure for years due to alleged (underlying) discrimination. Studies such as these often show that contemporary films and series are often not very diverse. Although the proportion of men and women in leading roles is moving in the right direction, minorities are still not well represented.
Netflix is therefore investing $ 100 million over the next five years to rectify that. The money can be used to hire companies that are good at engaging misrepresented groups.
Is it necessary?
Now Netflix’s desperate quest for balance around diversity naturally begs the question: is all this necessary? Now, this is not the platform to have a political discussion about that.
On the other hand, it is striking that Netflix is doing their best in the foreground, while everything is said to go wrong behind the scenes. For example, Engadget writes that behind the scenes at the show Grand Army racism would have taken place. After the African American writers left, all Netflix did was hire new African Americans. According to some, this is to give the impression that they are ‘woke’.
Whatever Netflix’s reason, things are getting better in terms of diversity in the film industry. Yes, Netflix sometimes goes a bit overboard and they are regularly ridiculed by the internet for their overly wokeness.
As far as I am concerned, the question remains to what extent the company really cares about the political issue; it could just be all about the pennies! And speaking of pennies, that $ 100 million sounds like a lot of money, but of course is peanuts for such a successful company as Netflix. Especially since it only concerns $ 20 million a year.
Also read: Disney + removes classics to save image
