Less than 24 hours after announcing that they've inked a deal to bring Shondaland to Netflix and just days before the release of the long-awaited Marvel's The Defenders, the streaming giant's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has revealed that Netflix plans on spending BILLIONS of dollars bringing you content in 2018.
In a new Variety cover story, Sarandos let it be known that Netflix plans on spending $7 billion creating original content in 2018. That'd include anything from their growing list of Marvel series to Stranger Things and Orange Is The New Black, among other things. The number seems to have increased every year; Variety reports that Netflix spent $6 billion in 2017, and $5 billion in 2016. Sarandos did point out that "[t]he vast majority is still licensed content. We’re still a couple years from seeing it go 50-50."
The increase of funds to create original content would explain why Netflix is acquiring giants in the industry like Shonda Rhimes or Mark Millar's Millarworld, the comic book dynamo that brought titles like Kick Ass and Kingsmen to the public. It's also even more important in light of Disney announcing their plans to create their own streaming service, which would leave Netflix high and dry when it came to wildly successful movie titles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Star Wars series, even if Netflix is trying to hold onto those streaming rights.
It's also important to note that Sarandos is still pushing for more original content, so the ratio of licensed to original content on Netflix can truly be "50-50." This is a number they have been openly working towards, and with a trend of increasing their budget for original content by $1 billion every year, they will be closer in attaining that balance while providing you with even more original series, comedy specials, and original movie projects for you to, well, Netflix and chill to.
