It appears that 2018 will be a big year for Netflix in the original programming area. This year, Netflix is planning to have around 700 original movies and TV shows to its streaming platform, Variety reports.
At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference today, CFO David Wells told an audience that Netflix will spend around $8 billion on content this year. He said, “Let’s continue to add content. It’s working. It’s driving growth.” Furthermore, around 80 titles of the 700 will be made outside the US, such as the German show Dark.
In addition to adding more original content this year, Netflix will be putting more emphasis on marketing. The company plans to spend around $2 billion this year on marketing, which is an increase of more than 50 percent compared to last year’s spending. “We used to think every incremental dollar was best spent on content,” Wells said. “We think marketing is a multiplier on the content spend.”
For the company’s strategy, Wells said, “Let’s continue to add content — it’s working, it’s driving growth.” And growth is definitely happening for the streaming giant. When asked about how much content spending may be enough for the company, Wells replied, “there’s no magic line where you know exactly where you are,” referring to efficiency. Netflix ended 2017 quite strong with 117.6 million streaming members worldwide. “There’s more non-members than members of Netflix — that’s our opportunity,” Wells said, citing an estimated 700 million broadband users globally (excludes China).
“We used to think every incremental dollar was best spent on content,” but it’s increasing spending on marketing because “we think marketing is a multiplier on the content spend,” Wells said. Netflix continues to expand the scope of its deals, snagging partnerships with major names like Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy and the Duplass brothers.
