Obama in talks to create shows for Netflix

Former US president Barack Obama is in advanced talks with Netflix Inc to produce a series of high-profile shows, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Under the terms of a proposed deal, Netflix will pay Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama for exclusive content on the video streaming service, the newspaper said.

The company declined to comment on the report.

Obama will not use his Netflix shows to respond to US president Donald Trump or conservative critics, and has instead talked about producing shows highlighting inspirational stories, the NYT said.

The financial terms of the deal are not known yet, said the daily.

In addition to Netflix, executives from Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc have also expressed interest in talking to Obama about content deals, according to NYT.

One possible show idea proposed that Obama could moderate talks focusing on issues that dominated his presidency, such as, health care, immigration, foreign policy and climate change, the newspaper said.

Last year, Penguin Random House landed a deal to publish two books by Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, with one volume to be written by each.

The deal followed a heated auction for global rights to the two books with bidding that reached more than $60 million, a record sum for US presidential memoirs, the Financial Times had reported last year.