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CFO Spencer Neumann also spoke about the company's partnership with the WWE, saying it does not signal further live sports ambitions.
By Caitlin Huston
Business Writer
Despite Dan Lin stepping in as the new head of film for Netflix, CFO Spencer Neumann says he does not expect the company to take its film vertical in another direction. 
At the Morgan Stanley Tech, Media & Telecom Conference on Monday, Neumann spoke about Lin, the producer behind the Lego movies and the new live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, taking over from Scott Stuber, who announced in January he would step down in March.
“It’s not a change in strategy, per se,” Neumann said. “We’re just continuing to kind of evolve and get better, and Dan brings this amazing experience from everything from Lego movies to Sherlock Holmes movies to horror films. He’s got production experience in big companies.”
“I think he’s just going to bring another perspective. And this business is so much about working with the best creatives you know, the best people internally and externally, having great processes, and we’re really excited to have him be part of the team and take us to that next level,” he continued.
Additionally, Neumann spoke to two other emerging revenue streams at Netflix: the WWE and gaming. 
In January, Netflix announced a $5 billion, 10-year deal to stream WWE’s Monday Night Raw starting in January 2025. The streaming giant will also become the home of WWE content outside of the U.S. The deal had the characteristics of what Netflix looks for in a “large licensed content relationship,” Neumann said, including a desire for that programming among membership, global appeal, long-term security and an attractive value opportunity in terms of member impact versus cost.
“One of our strategic areas that we’re kind of flexing into as we expand our entertainment offering is live programming. And with WWE, there’s hundreds of hours of live programming events that are kind of appointment viewing each week. So I think we’re going to build our capabilities along with WWE, which is an opportunity to make us better and drive growth for the WWE,” he said. 
He added that this also does not signal a change in Netflix’s strategy around sports. 
“I wouldn’t look at WWE as any indication of a change in our sports strategy, because it’s right in that sweet spot of sports entertainment for us, and what we call our sports shoulder programming, which is around the drama of sports and telling the story behind the sport,” he said. 
Another area of growth is in gaming, which Neumann calls “a many-year build,” which helps with better consumer retention on Netflix. In the first two years, Neumann estimates that Netflix put 90 games on the platform and tripled their engagement. The gaming vertical is “still really small,” he said, but Netflix plans to grow over the next few years through a mixture of licensed and original games.
“Our expectation and aspiration is to grow engagement multiples of the current size over the next few years to bring bigger and bigger games to our service, more compelling games to our service,” he said.
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