The Netflix Lobbying Machine: Inside the Effort to Sway Policy Worldwide

Netflix has been evolving its public policy strategies in recent months to align itself more with Hollywood and less with Silicon Valley, a shift driven by the streamer's maturation into a full-fledged film and TV studio, by its international expansion and by the intense scrutiny Washington is now applying to the tech companies. In Jan, Netflix abandoned its previous lobbying cohort, the Internet Association, which represents companies like Facebook and Google, and became the first streaming company to join the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the major studios. The MPAA's global reach gives Netflix a bargaining advantage on issues as varied as Latin American tax policy and new European laws regulating streaming companies. "Netflix is a hybrid company," says Benton fellow Gigi Sohn, who also serves as a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. "It's not your typical Silicon Valley firm and not your typical Hollywood studio, and their policy positions reflect that." Liabilities have driven tech companies to drop record sums on domestic lobbying — Facebook spent $12.6 million on DC influence in 2018 and Google $21.2 million. By contrast, Netflix doled out only $800,000 for domestic lobbying (though the company spent much more internationally; those figures are not compiled).