Netflix’s top content executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa will use this year’s Content London to connect the streamer’s first decade of local originals to the forces likely to shape the next one.
The appearance
Larry Tanz, Netflix VP of content for EMEA, is confirmed as a keynote speaker at Content London, which runs from November 30 to December 3. Organisers say the session comes ten years after Netflix released its first European originals and will look ahead at what will shape the creative industries across the next decade.
Tanz has led Netflix’s EMEA content team since April 2019 and joined the company in 2014. His earlier roles include CEO of Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, now Tornante Television, CEO of LivePlanet, and senior positions at AOL Time Warner and Mercer. He is a founding board member of Water.org.
The slate that made the case
The titles under Tanz’s oversight explain why local-language strategy has become central to Netflix’s pitch:
- Lupin (France) and La Casa de Papel (Spain) as breakout scripted assets
- The Empress (Germany), Adolescence (UK) and The Polygamist (South Africa)
- Films including Troll (Norway) and All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
- Unscripted format Love Is Blind across several territories
Why the keynote matters
For media planners and entertainment marketers, a keynote from Netflix’s EMEA content lead is less about a single show and more about direction. EMEA is not one market; it is a collection of very different subscriber and advertising economies. What Tanz chooses to emphasise—markets, formats, windowing or ad-supported distribution—will be read as a clue to where Netflix sees its next locally driven growth.
A useful frame is to ask whether local-language hits are being described as subscriber acquisition tools, retention engines or exportable IP. Each answer points a planner toward different spending decisions: owned-channel retention campaigns, broad brand partnerships, or cross-territory media support. Netflix is unlikely to answer the question directly, but its language around markets often provides the read.
Content London’s agenda supplies the surrounding context: direct-to-consumer strategy, vertical storytelling, new funding models, FAST channels, AI, branded entertainment and audience engagement. Local originals increasingly sit inside all of those conversations, as streamers shift from pure subscriber growth to retention, ad revenue and format mobility.
What to watch for
Listen for named markets and genres, which often precede actual commissioning pushes. Watch for any comments on FAST or advertising windows, because that is where a local hit can become a different kind of inventory. And note whether Tanz frames EMEA as one regional system or as a set of markets with separate economics and audience needs.
None of this is a product announcement. The real value is forward-looking: a senior Netflix executive rarely lays out commissioning priorities in public, so even a passing reference to a market or format gives buyers and producers a benchmark for the next planning cycle.
For those attending, the event runs November 30 to December 3. An earlybird rate of £1,199 is available until October 22, a £200 saving against the standard price. More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.
Source: C21media
