Bela Bajaria

Company: NetflixTitle: Chief Content OfficerIndustry: Media and EntertainmentNotable in 2024: Bajaria led Netflix's push into live events and sports, and maintained the company's dominant position among streaming services and all entertainment platforms.

In its fourth quarter earnings call, Netflix said it plans to improve its core business this year with more series and films, a better subscriber experience, and more growth from it ad-supported tier, while also delving further into the live event space and games.

Key to the company's ability to execute that strategy is chief content officer Bela Bajaria, who not only led Netflix's push into live events in recent years with specials like "Chris Rock: Selective Outrage", "The Roast of Tom Brady" and the SAG Awards, but also orchestrated a litany of deals that brought WWE programming and NFL games to the streaming platform for the first time.

"Since I started in this business in 1996, people have always talked about linear TV dying. Definitely the pie will be smaller in three years," Bajaria told CNBC in 2023. "But there are so many people who watch linear TV, especially sports and news. It will be smaller, but not gone."

Under her leadership, more of it is going to Netflix, which has continued to grow into the sports category, streaming a Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight in November, which was watched by 108 million people, making it the most-streamed sporting event ever, according to the company.

Last year, Netflix received the most nominations for a single studio at both the Oscars and the Emmys with 107 nominations across 35 series, TV movies and specials.

Under Bajaria, not only did Netflix films and series become global phenomena — they drove economic impact. "Bridgerton" created a quarter-billion-pound boost to the British economy; "Emily in Paris" increased tourism in France; and the release of the "One Day" series returned the novel to best-seller lists 15 years after its release. Netflix also expanded its production hub in New Mexico that the company says has created thousands of jobs and generated nearly one billion dollars for the state.

Even as the streamer pushes more into sports and other live events, and all entertainment companies are scrutinizing production budgets more closely, Bajaria stressed at the recent Next on Netflix event that "Creativity is not dead."

"Not on Netflix, and not for the creators we work with. They're always coming up with amazing, original ideas we can't stop thinking about," she said. "And they're the reason 2025 is going to be the most surprising, most unique, most entertaining year yet."