Netflix viewers will have around 700 Netflix-produced or acquired original TV series and movies to choose from this year — an astounding amount of in-house content several times greater than the network output of the four major American commercial television networks combined.
The streaming service plans to spend $8 billion on content this year, according to its chief financial officer David Wells, speaking Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.
“Let’s continue to add content — it’s working, it’s driving growth,” Wells said.
Netflix has already tapped North American producers for new show ideas and has launched a number of innovative series that would likely never been approved at ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX. In fact, the streaming service has had to seek 80 original productions conceived and produced outside of the United States, just to meet its insatiable appetite for more content. Wells signaled Netflix is just getting started and plans even more new series and movies next year.
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Wells
As long as Netflix continues to have 117.6 million streaming customers worldwide, the sky is practically the limit as far as its annual programming budget is concerned.
“There’s no magic line where you know exactly where you are” in terms of striking a balance between the right amount of programming and spending too much money.
Netflix is a service in transition, gradually moving away from just licensing other studios’ content and moving towards producing its own content. Like its competitors Amazon and Hulu, Netflix is improving on its ability to create quality entertainment as it gains experience in the business and attracts new talent away from other studios and networks. But the service has no plans to ignore independently produced content if it is attractive to subscribers.
“People don’t care where the stories come from,” Wells said. “We’re about having the best content. We don’t necessarily have to do it ourselves.”
In addition to spending more on content than ever before, Netflix will also boost its marketing budget more than 50% this year, from $1.3 billion last year to $2 billion this year. Netflix will target a lot of money signing up more subscribers outside North America, where Netflix is less familiar. The service hopes to attract more subscribers so it can invest in even more original programming.
In the next year or two, expect Netflix to start releasing new series developed by Ryan Murphy, who produced 9-1-1 for FOX, and FX’s American Crime Story, American Horror Story, and Feud. It also has a similar deal with ABC producer Shonda Rhimes, who produced Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal for ABC.
If they keep putting on shows like Stranger Things and Altered Carbon, I am 100% in.