Netflix’s original content ramp is showing no signs of slowing own – in fact, if anything, it’s speeding up. Netflix CFO David Wells says that the streaming company wants to have somewhere around 700 original shows and movies on the service in 2018, using that previously revealed budget of around $8 billion earmarked for original content.
Wells, speaking at Morgan Stanley’s tech, media and telecom event (via Variety) explained that the new shows and movies that Netflix is creating is doing its intended work – adding new subscribers to the platform. Since people continue to sign up on the back of new content, the company’s belief is that it should continue to produce it, through Wells also qualified that it’s still not solely committed to one approach or another when it comes to content acquisition.
700 original shows and movies is a lot, but it makes sense when you look more closely at the frequency with which Netflix is releasing now original programming these days. It’s also building a lot more international original productions, too, including 80 set for this year.
You do start to wonder about how quality can be maintained when you’re aiming for that much original programming in that span of time. The answer, though, might actually be that quality isn’t really as important a factor as you might expect.
Netflix got a lot of ribbing for its original holiday movie slate this year, for instance, which included Hallmark channel style fare. There’s a lot that falls into that middle-of-the-road category these days, in fact, and yet it seems like someone’s watching it, and Netflix’s subscriber numbers continue to grow.
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