If you’re sitting there thinking; ‘Netflix isn’t investing in enough content for us to watch’, then you’d be wrong. Very wrong. It’s estimated that year on year Netflix is spending more on content than any other provider. Whether it means buying licenses to major hit TV shows such as The Walking Dead or Breaking to creating their own original content such as House of Cards or Marco Polo.
This year it’s estimated that Netflix will spend a total of of $3.31bn (or £2.15bn) on content investment and in 2016 that’s estimated to reach to $5.09bn (or £3.3bn)
An astonishing number for any company but specifically for content investment is practically unheard of. These numbers means that Netflix will be investing more in content than HBO, Starz, Showtime and Amazon’s Prime service combined. ESPN will be the only broadcaster and content provider investing more but that’s just down to the nature of broadcasting sports.
This number isn’t just for the US however as it covers content acquisitions across the globe in the 30 plus regions it now operates in.
The expansion also looks to invest more heavily in its own original programming as we’ve seen the foundations being laid in the last few years. Marco Polo is a shining light of what Netflix hopes to achieve with its hefty budget of over £60m to produce it.
Janney Capital Markets provided the projections for Netflix investment saying that “The spend builds a competitive advantage and virtuous cycle as it draws in more subscribers that allow it to afford more content,”
