Craig Ferguson named director, content acquisition, at Netflix

LOS ANGELES: He has sat across the table from Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate, and now Craig Ferguson is bringing that dealmaking nerve in-house at Netflix. In October 2026, he became director, content acquisition, at the streaming giant, an on-site role in Los Angeles, California. He steps up after joining Netflix in August 2025 as manager, content acquisition, a spell of one year and three months with the company.

Ferguson’s record reads like a tour of Hollywood’s biggest deal rooms. His longest stint was at YouTube, from October 2018 to August 2025, nearly seven years as film and TV licensing lead in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. He was lead negotiator on global film and television licensing deals across multiple lines of business, including AVOD, SVOD, FAST, TVOD and SVOD channels. The counterparties included Disney, Paramount, NBCU, Warner Brothers, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate, as well as independent and international studios. He also led film content strategy and programming for YouTube’s Free Movies and Shows Program.

Before that, from August 2015 to October 2018, he was senior manager, content acquisition, partnerships and strategy at Yahoo. He developed and helped drive the company’s overall video strategy, and negotiated and managed video content partnerships with networks, studios and digital content companies including Hulu, Paramount, Sony, Discovery, A&E, Scripps, Fremantle, Fusion, Buzzfeed and Group Nine. He was named to Variety’s Up Next list of up-and-coming dealmakers in entertainment, as part of its 2016 Dealmakers Impact Report. He also negotiated and optimised distribution partnerships for Yahoo’s original video and editorial content with third-party platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Inform, Roku and Pluto TV, working across product, editorial, marketing, PR, legal, finance and programming to operationalise and optimise those deals.

The MBA years sharpened the numbers side of the craft. From January to June 2015, he was MBA associate, digital distribution, at NBCUniversal in Universal City, performing extensive financial analysis and forecasting on the effectiveness of digital distribution strategies, partnerships, price promotions and programming initiatives, and building financial models to identify new strategic opportunities for digital revenue growth. From June to December 2014, as MBA associate, media technology strategy and R&D, at Disney ABC Television Group in Burbank, he managed a cross-functional team creating a data analytics platform to inform and optimise Disney-ABC’s video content strategy, while evaluating new technological innovations and sourcing and managing strategic partnerships.

Law and development shaped his early career. From September 2012 to September 2013, he worked in television and digital media at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richmond, Rush and Kaller, LLP, a premier entertainment law firm in Beverly Hills, providing qualitative and quantitative analysis on potential deals, negotiating production contracts and working with clients to ensure compliance with key deal points.

Before that, from June 2010 to June 2012, he was director of film and TV development at Owen Wilson Productions, the production company of actor and writer Owen Wilson, which had a first-look agreement with New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Brothers. He sourced and negotiated IP and content rights, formed and managed strategic partnerships, generated sales strategies for new products and negotiated content development deals with film studios and TV networks, including two TV dramas then in development at HBO and Starz.

His foundations were laid in the studios. From August 2008 to June 2010, he worked in worldwide distribution at Starz Entertainment in Burbank, using international sales and marketing data to analyse the international television market, working with the foreign sales team on licensing Starz Media content internationally and domestically to free and pay platforms, and tracking independent features for potential acquisition. From April 2004 to March 2008, he was manager of film and TV development at Terra Firma Films, the production company of Adam Herz, best known for launching the American Pie franchise, which had a first-look agreement with Universal Pictures. There he sourced and negotiated film rights and content deals, managed film projects in development at major studios and managed relationships with studio executives and agents. He began in August 2003 as assistant to the vice president of development at Josephson Entertainment, the production company of Barry Josephson, a television and film producer and former president of Sony Pictures, which had a first-look agreement with Twentieth Century Fox.

The pattern is plain. Ferguson has worked every side of the table: the producer, the studio, the platform and now the streamer. At Netflix, where content is the currency, that vantage point is worth a great deal.