Netflix announces $100 million coronavirus relief fund for creatives

Netflix is taking huge steps to help Hollywood cope with the coronavirus pandemic after the city has come to a halt. On Friday, the streamer announced plans to create a $100 million relief fund to help the creative community get through the crisis.

“Almost all television and film production has now ceased globally – leaving hundreds of thousands of crew and cast without jobs. These include electricians, carpenters, and drivers, many of whom are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis,” Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement. “This community has supported Netflix through the good times, 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.”

A large part of the fund will go toward helping affected workers on their own productions.  “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.”

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Netflix will donate $1 million to the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, and another million is flagged for the Motion Picture and Television Fund and The Actors Fund Emergency Assistance.  $1 million more will be split between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes.

“In other regions, including Europe, Latin America and Asia where we have a big production presence, we are working with existing industry organizations to create similar creative community emergency relief efforts,” he said.

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“What’s happening is unprecedented. We are only as strong as the people we work with and Netflix is fortunate to be able to help those hardest hit in our industry through this challenging time.”