Netflix has big plans for this year.
The television network and subscription service intends on spending more than $8 billion on content in 2018 which will include a “700-range” figure in relation to original TV shows, movies and specials.
80 of the original productions will be from outside the US, such as the German psychological thriller Dark.
CFO David Wells stated that the huge amount of content offered by the service is boosting their number of subscribers. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference yesterday, he said that their company strategy continues to be “to add content — it’s working, it’s driving growth.” The year 2017 saw Netflix have a total of 117.6 million streaming members worldwide.
Wells also said there’s “no religion” at Netflix about the source of programming, but that the company increasingly intends to produce its own content.
“People don’t care where the stories come from,” he said. “We’re about having the best content. We don’t necessarily have to do it ourselves.”
He also indicated that Netflix intends to spend more on marketing (their budget will be increased by more than 50% for 2018, from $1.3 billion last year to $2 billion this year). He explained that “We used to think every incremental dollar was best spent on content,” but now “we think marketing is a multiplier on the content spend.”
Netflix is working with major names in the TV industry to create new content, including producer Ryan Murphy, the showrunner behind such hit shows as Glee, American Horror Story, Feud, Nip/Tuck and Scream Queens, and Shonda Rhimes, showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder.
