Netflix today said it will spend $8 billion on programming next year. Yes, you heard it right, $8 billion dollars. That’s up $2 billion from what the company had planned to spend in 2017.
It doesn’t seem that long ago we almost choked upon hearing Netflix was spending about $90 million on its original series Marco Polo, or cheered when the company promised to bring 150 hours of HDR (High Dynamic Range) programming by the end of 2016.
Now, the company is planning even more original content, particularly movies, with about 80 titles planned for release in 2018.
“We have a good head start, but our job is to improve Netflix as rapidly as possible,” said Netflix in its earnings release today, adding “to stay ahead of the competition in the decades to come.”
Netflix reported over 5 million new members in the third quarter this year, although most of them from international markets. In total, Netflix reported 109 million subscribers, up from 86 million a year ago.
This is great for content creators, by the way. It seems like a great time to be a writer, director, or actor when a company like Netflix steps up production this drastically.
What maybe good for Netflix, however, may not be so good for the traditional movie industry. With so much money being spent on streamable content, it’s hard to imagine the big screen studios won’t see some some residual effect on box office sales, as if they aren’t already, due to the increase in content consumed at home over the internet.
What will help fund those 80 titles on Netflix, and additional programming to come, is the increase in price of HD and 4k streaming plans. Netflix’s 2-screen HD plan, previously $9.99, is now $10.99. Their 4-screen 4k plan is now $13.99, an increase of $2 from $11.99.
