Netflix announced this week it is partnering with Barack and Michelle Obama to develop original content for the video streaming giant — a multi-million dollar deal reportedly brokered by a former Obama presidential campaign fundraiser and administration official.
The Obamas, it appears, were lent a helping hand from a former campaign bundler to secure the rumored $50 million with Netflix.
“Ted Sarandos, a major campaign contributor for Obama and the streaming giant’s creative-content chief who oversees an $8 billion budget, helped to broker the deal, the source told The Post. Sarandos and his wife, Nicole Avant, bundled nearly $600,000 in contributions to Obama from their friends and associates during the 2012 presidential campaign,” reports the New York Post.
Between 2009 to 2011, Avant served as the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas — a term that brought turmoil to the Caribbean post.
The State Department inspector general published a 2012 report on the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas, detailing how Avant was responsible for, “an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement, which has caused problems throughout the embassy.”
Last week, Obama told attendees of a Las Vegas conference organized cloud software firm Okta that he intends to use Netflix to help “train the next generation of leaders.”
“We want to tell stories. This [Netflix deal] becomes a platform.”
“We are interested in lifting people up and identifying people doing amazing work,” Obama added.
“We did this in the White House.”
“President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have entered into a multi-year agreement to produce films and series for the streaming platform, potentially including scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries, and features,” Netflix said in a statement of its partnership with the Obamas.
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