Netflix has announced that it will spend a huge $7 billion on content in 2018, up from the $6 billion it spent in 2017 and $5 billion in 2016. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer (CCO), said that the vast majority of content on Netflix will still be licensed, and that the company is still a few years away from a 50-50 ratio between original and licensed content.
Ted Sarandos said that the source of all the money being spent was revenue, from places such as subscriptions. In an interview with Variety, he stated that “the relationship between studios and networks has always been that of a frenemy.” Indeed, in the past week or so it was announced that Disney would be pulling its content off of Netflix and establishing its own streaming service. Sarandos said that Netflix had bet that something like this would happen and is the reason why they began creating original content a number of years ago.
The CCO also revealed that Latin America, not China, is where Netflix is making a lot of money. He said:
“Latin America has been a rocket ship for us. Western Europe is growing nice. We’re just entering Asia. We have so much growth ahead of us. We’re focused on ‘How do we get people in Korea to love us as much as they do in Kansas?’”
Netflix’s ability to churn out good TV such as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and Stranger Things, means that it might not matter too much if companies such as Disney pull their content going forward.
Source: Streaming Observer