Netflix won’t be taking this coronavirus issue sitting down.

It’s a tough time for the men and women who make their livings in production. They work job to job and often paycheck to paycheck. With the coronavirus putting a lot of productions on hold, the wellbeing of all of these people are in jeopardy. What makes things worse is that we have no way of knowing just how long this is going to go on. This means the workers have no idea how long they’ll be out of a paycheck.

Well, it looks like Netflix is actually taking proactive steps to help some of these people. Netflix has announced via their company blog that they have set up a $100 million relief fund for these out-of-work professionals.

“This community has supported Netflix through the good times,”  wrote chief content officer Ted Sarandos, “and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide. So we’ve created a $100 million fund to help with hardship in the creative community.”

But what exactly will the funds be allocated?

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“Most of the fund will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on our own productions around the world,” Sarandos continued. “We’re in the process of working out exactly what this means, production by production. This is in addition to the two weeks pay we’ve already committed to the crew and cast on productions we were forced to suspend last week.”

While it would make sense for the streamer to focus solely on their own productions, they are extending help to others as well.

“Beyond helping workers on our own productions, we also want to support the broader film and television industry,” Sarandos continued. “So $15 million of the fund will go to third parties and non-profits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base.”

I think this is a great move from Netflix and one that I hope studios can follow suit on. While I know it’s never fun to hand out cash — and I obviously don’t have my hands on the financials of many of these big studios — I think it’s the least they can do. When you have them churning out billion-dollar grossers one after another, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think they can pledge just as much as Netflix has. 

At the end of the day, it helps keep the industry well-fed and happy. No one joins this business purely for the money. I know there are plenty whose lives could be irrevocably altered without some sort of assistance. What do you think of Netflix handing out $100 million? Do you think other studios should follow their lead? Let us know down below!

And check out Sarandos’ full memo on their company blog!

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SOURCE: Netflix