Netflix has revealed for the first time how much it spent on content over the past decade, with Ted Sarandos saying “while other entertainment companies pull back, we’re leaning in.”
Marking 10 years since it started making content outside of the States, the streamer revealed that it spent $135B on original shows, films and licensing from third parties.
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During this time, Netflix said it contributed more than $325B in “gross value added to the global economy.”
Publishing a blog alongside a report titled The Netflix Effect, Co-CEO Sarandos took the fight to his competitors.
“Over the last decade, Netflix shows and movies have consistently shaped what people read, buy, listen to, eat, wear and play,” he wrote. “Now we have a responsibility to keep that flywheel going. That’s why, while other entertainment companies pull back, we’re leaning in — spending tens of billions of dollars on content every year, investing in production facilities from Spain to New Jersey, and growing the entertainment industry through training programs.”
While the $135B figure includes spend in the States, Netflix wants to focus on its 10-year international anniversary, which has seen it build production centers outside of the U.S. and commission huge hits like Adolescence, Squid Game and Money Heist. The latter is returning, according to a teaser vid over the weekend.
The Netflix Effect report comes armed with facts and figures proving the streamer’s commitment to international. This comes at a time when more nations are attempting to impose local content quotas on the streaming services, which Netflix broadly argues against.
According to the report, viewing to non-English-language content like Squid Game and Money Heist has increased from less than one-tenth to a third over the past decade, while more than three quarters of Netflix’s titles are now licensed from around the world, coming from 3,000 companies including public broadcasters. It has produced original series and films in more than 4,500 cities and towns around the world.
Last year, meanwhile, 70% of viewing on Netflix came from subs watching a title from a country other than their own, the report added.
Drilling down into specific examples where Netflix has had local impact, Sarandos floated Frontera Verde, a Colombian thriller for which 30 of the 150 crew members came from the local Amazonian community. He also cited Strängnäs in Sweden, where Netflix has filmed seven different European versions of Love is Blind. And who could forget the “cultural wave” created by last year’s KPop Demon Hunters, Sarandos wrote.
Sarandos’ claim that rivals are “pulling back” comes at an interesting time for the global content landscape, and just a few months after Netflix lost out in the race to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which would have given the streamer an enormous theatrical studio, networks and production capabilities.
Sarandos concluded: “These days, the entertainment business is changing even faster than when we started — which is why, as we look ahead to the next decade, we’ll keep investing in the relationships we’ve built with the creators we work with, the communities we depend on and the fans who love to watch.”
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