The streaming company is in the core of upsetting several industries, having completely transformed television and now poised to do the equivalent with the film industry. The company’s commitment to change has put Netflix front and shoulders above its nearest streaming opponents in terms of both subscriber totals and critical acclaim; Netflix ruled other streaming services in this year’s Emmy Award nominations, picking up a whole of 91 different nominations, showing that their original series and films are true powers to be evaluated with.
While the internet freaks out about Disney closing its streaming deal with Netflix, the company remains to forge ahead employing high-profile talent and starting an enormous budget at its original programming. Just days after the Disney turmoil, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said that the streaming leader intends to increase its funds by $1 billion dollars over the next year.
In a conversation with News, Sarandos says that Netflix will pay over $7 billion on content in 2018, up from $6 billion in 2017 and $5 billion in 2016. As of now, Netflix currently has $15.7 billion in outstanding debts in deals for new series and movies over the next few years. With such an astronomically-large budget, media critics are already starting to wonder if Netflix is “protecting” or “ruining” Hollywood by producing such a singular creator-producer-distributor model. Sarandos counters those cases, however, stating that Netflix is simply on the forefront of what’s already a growing trend everywhere the media industries:
I would say that the connection between studios and networks has ever been that of a frenemy. Everyone is doing some transcription of it already. They just have to secure a decision for their companies, their brands and their stockholders on how to best optimize the content. We started creating original content five years ago, betting this would happen.