With Disney’s streaming service expected to kick off in 2019 and with huge brands like Marvel and Star Wars expected to be part of it, along with Disney’s acquisition of Fox, no doubt that this will be kind of worrying for existing streaming services such as Netflix. However it looks like the company is hoping to keep its subscribers around with more originals.In a report from Variety, Netflix’s CFO David Wells has confirmed that the company will be investing upwards of $8 billion on original content this year, where we can expect to see more original TV shows and movies, which after taking into account new seasons of existing content will bring the total to around 700, with 80 or so productions from outside of the US. Wells was quoted as saying, “Let’s continue to add content — it’s working, it’s driving growth.”
As to where it gets its content from, it seems that Netflix isn’t too fussed if it is a complete original, as long as they have the “best content”. He claims, “People don’t care where the stories come from. We’re about having the best content. We don’t necessarily have to do it ourselves.” Netflix’s spending of upwards of $8 billion is a huge contrast compared to YouTube. This amount reflects the money spent on both original content as well as licensing content from other networks, such as The Walking Dead.
It was recently reported that YouTube was only planning to spend a few hundred million this year on original content, which while is a lot of money, certain pales to what Netflix is prepared to spend. Whether or not Netflix’s strategy will pay off remains to be seen, but if you’re a subscriber then you should be able to expect an influx of original TV shows and movies this year.
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