We know by now that Netflix isn’t afraid to spend the big bucks to bolster its content offerings. For example, the company recently scored a huge deal with Shonda Rhimes, the creator behind shows such as Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, and took her away from Disney. To give you another example, the company earlier this year paid upwards of $100 million to Jerry Seinfield for two brand new stand-up specials, as well as other scripted content.
Netflix’s offerings just continue to grow. You can watch over 1,000 hours of original content by the end of 2017. Pair this up with their movie and other collections, the company continues to raise the bar in offerings for their subscribers.
Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos recently told Variety that the company plans to spend upwards of $7 billion on content in 2018. It should be noted that a decent portion of that amount will be used to renew and extend current licenses.
“The vast majority is still licensed content,” Sarandos said. “We’re still a couple years from seeing it go 50-50.” It will be interesting to see how much further the company will go in 2018 seeing that it has a enormous spending budget.
