Netflix will have 700 original television shows and movies on its service by the time 2018 draws to a close, says Netflix’s chief financial officer, David Wells.
Wells expanded on the strategy the goal the company has been pursuing since 2016: to have a 50/50 split of licensed and original content on Netflix. That means producing a lot of original content — like upcoming series She-Ra, The Boss Baby: Back in Business, The Umbrella Academy, The Witcher or Bojack Horseman spinoff Tuca and Bertie — and spending without abandon to do it — like a recent $300 million exclusivity deal with Glee and American Horror Story showrunner Ryan Murphy. Murphy will produce new projects exclusively for Netflix, but his ongoing franchises at FX, like American Horror Story, American Crime Story and Feud, will continue to run on 21st Century Fox’s premiere network.
“It’s a lean-in for us,” Wells said of the Murphy deal, according to Deadline. “There’s some risk for us. But in the grand scheme of the $8 billion in P&L spending we’re putting [on content], these deals are rare.”
Netflix’s glut of content hasn’t necessarily resulted in a glut of quality, and in a deluge of mediocre content the good stuff can be hard to find — especially if it’s not marketed well. Netflix plans to expand its marketing budget significantly in 2018 as well.
And in an increasingly competitive streaming ecosystem, it’s going to need it.