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The company's shares rose as much as 2 percent
to a record of $209.72.
Called "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David
Letterman," the six-episode series will also feature interviews
with actor George Clooney, rapper Jay-Z, radio shock jock Howard
Stern, comedian Tina Fey and Pakistani education activist and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the streaming service
said.
Netflix has been spending heavily to produce and acquire content
as it races to dominate streaming television and beat
competition from traditional media and other streaming players
such as Hulu and Amazon.com Inc's <AMZN.O> Prime Video.
Letterman's interview with Obama will mark the former
president's first television talk show appearance since he left
office in January last year.
Letterman, 70, left his job as host of "The Late Show" in May
2015, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family after
more than 30 years on late night television.
His return to television for Netflix was announced in August
2017, when the quick-witted host said that Pope Francis and
President Donald Trump would be top of his wish-list for the
series.
Netflix said the new series would consist of 60-minute episodes
centered around "one extraordinary figure whom Dave finds
fascinating" and that the interviews would take place both
inside and outside a studio setting.
The company, home to shows such as "House of Cards" and
"Stranger Things," streams to most countries in the world and
has a customer base of about 115.6 million.
The company's shares have kept pace with its user growth and
have risen nearly 60 percent in the past one year.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles and Supantha
Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Brown and Shounak
Dasgupta)
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