Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos spoke to at the RTS Cambridge Convention, where he revealed that the company plans to double its spending on original content in the coming years.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sarandos said that originals are currently at ten percent of the budget, and that they expect them to grow to twenty percent.
While Netflix launched its first original series, Lilyhammer, in 2012, 2013 has clearly been the year of Netflix. The company started off strong early in the year with the nine-time Emmy-nominated House of Cards, before quickly following with Hemlock Grove, Arrested Development and the much-talked about Orange is the New Black.
Since then, the company has quietly put out the kid/teen-targeted Mako Mermaids (which has new episodes debuting this weekend), and this week, it just launched the Ricky Gervais dramedy Derek.
The company has also been releasing a number of exclusive stand-up comedy performances from comedians like John Hodgman, Rob Schneider, Doug Stanhope, Mike Birbiglia and Kathleen Madigan. Netflix made headlines with news that it would be releasing other exclusives from Aziz Ansari and Russell Peters (which includes both a stand-up special and a “docu-series”). A special from comedian Marc Maron is also reportedly in the pipeline.
Other Netflix originals that are expected to debut in the coming year include Marco Polo, Narcos and Sense8, not to mention the stuff we’ll be seeing from the big DreamWorks animation deal Netflix announced back in June.
Second seasons of Lilyhammer, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove and Orange is the New Black are all on the way. An Arrested Development movie (which Netflix will likely be involved with) is in the works, probably along with another season eventually, and Ricky Gervais has already indicated he’ll do another season of Derek (it’s not yet clear if Netflix will be involved, but it seems very likely).
And that’s just the stuff we know about. It sounds like we’re going to be hearing about a lot more Netflix originals in the not too distant future. It will be interesting to see if this has a significant impact on the amount of non-original content it licenses. So far, it hasn’t been much of a problem.
Word is that all of this original content is making subscribers want to stick around, which should certainly please investors. The company’s stock hit a record high this week, by the way.