Netflix now counts over 100 million subscribers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, its largest region by membership. Larry Tanz, Senior Vice President and Head of Content at the streaming giant, holds the rare job of deciding what those viewers will watch next.
That audience did not exist when Tanz joined Netflix a decade ago. Back then the company had no original programming in the region. Today it produces in 50 countries. Tanz saw early attempts to run European content from Los Angeles fail. The solution? Relocate operations to Europe entirely, getting closer to local filmmakers and storytellers.
There is no single European taste. Tanz argues there is not even one German or French taste, pointing to his own household where he, his wife, and three teenagers all want different things. Netflix responds by commissioning deeply local stories. The breakout Swedish thriller Blood Sacrifice became a worldwide hit precisely because its creators never tried to make it global.
The same pattern holds for Squid Game. The Korean team behind it focused solely on building a great survivalist drama for Korea. Global success followed authenticity, not a diluted product aimed at everyone. Tanz calls the alternative approach a trap: creating for everybody means creating for nobody.
Localization works through dubbing in nearly 40 languages and subtitles in all of them. That infrastructure allows a Danish mystery or a Spanish drama to travel across borders without losing its specific cultural texture. Meanwhile, viewers in Rome can watch a Korean series, a German film, and a Brazilian reality show all in one evening.
Tanz worries most about regulation. Legacy rules and mandatory investment obligations, he believes, could strangle exactly the risk-taking that produces hits. Creativity and regulation, he says, do not mix well.
Artificial intelligence does not scare him. A great screenwriter remains great with or without AI. The most powerful AI writing tool cannot match top-tier human talent. But a great screenwriter using AI tools could push further. Tanz sees this as the industry’s recurring story, from digital cameras to CGI, where better tools have consistently enabled bolder stories. Netflix’s goal now: equip storytellers with those tools and let the most original work rise to the top.
