Netflix shows won’t be impacted by the recent production shutdowns amid the coronavirus crisis until later this year, it has been confirmed.
Many film and television studios have been forced to postpone filming due to tightening rules around the practice of social distancing, which have been implemented globally to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Among the projects to have come to a halt are Netflix Originals’ Stranger Things 4 and The Witcher season two.
In a new interview with CNN (via IndieWire), Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos confirmed that subscribers won’t be affected by these delays until later in 2020.
“What’s happening now is we work pretty far ahead with delivering all the episodes of our shows at once,” he explained. “So there will be no disruption over the next few months, maybe later in the year as physical production is not operational.”
This comes after Netflix users reported widespread outages on the platform last week, with social distancing rules and lockdowns causing a significant surge in demand.
Discussing the recent rise in streaming, Sarandos added: “You can imagine, all viewing is up. It’s up on Netflix, on CNN on television in general. The system has been very robust and can help out a lot of people.”
He went on to say that “people certainly are watching a lot more Netflix” as a result of the current situation. “The best thing you can do is stay at home,” he said. “We are trying hard to help.”
Meanwhile, the full list of titles coming to Netflix UK this month has been released. Among the scheduled new arrivals is season two of Ricky Gervais’ After Life and the final batch of Studio Ghibli films.
