Original Content, Original Content, Original Content
The rise of streaming services—and the wars for audience eyeballs and attention—have heated up in the last couple of years, with every traditional television and cable network out there, vying to launch their own streaming service, buttressed by content—such as Friends—that audiences already know and love.
One of the promises of the presence of streaming services is that there would be a plethora of niche content on niche services, that would appeal to niche audiences. This space is increasingly dominated by an old streaming player, Netflix.
From the trades:
Variety Insight collected data proving Netflix has released more original content than ever before in 2019 including Golden Globe-nominated The Politician, Marriage Story, and The Irishman. From 2018 to 2019, Netflix released 54.6% more original content increasing from 240 to 371. Not only has Netflix broken its own records, but records set by the entire TV industry. Netflix released more content in 2019 than the entire TV industry has prior to 2006. In 2005, only 292 shows were released, and that number only decreases with each prior year
54.6% more content in 2019 than in any year prior to 2006. No matter how many different ways you cut it, that is impressive.
Flooding the Zone
Netflix began quietly flooding the zone last year with original content, and, with the recent news that they are headed back to the junk bond markets to sell more junk bonds to fund their burn rate of $3.5 billion dollars a year on developing new IP native to their platform, expect more of this.
There is an artistic and creative benefit to having a streaming service like Netflix pushing original content on their platforms.
From the trades, yet again:
Netflix has provided opportunities for creatives in the TV industry. The more original shows it takes on, the more writers’ scripts are being bought and roles are available for actors. Writers are also able to pitch shows that may be deemed too controversial for broadcast networks which allows masterpieces like Orange Is the New Black, Russian Doll, and Black Mirror to be created. These are also the kind of shows that viewers are demanding more of. The Golden Globes recognition is the concrete evidence that viewers want the unique, non-cookie cutter shows that streaming services like Netflix can provide.
The content may be trending too “woke” for audiences out here in the hinterlands, but for the audiences who hand out trophies, the content is trending in the right direction.
What Are We To Make of All of This?
If you pay for Netflix—as some do—there is more original content set to drop in 2020, particularly as the behemoth of Disney+ places more market pressures on Netflix, and as HBO Max and other streamers debut next year.
If you don’t pay for Netflix—as some of you don’t—be assured there will continue to be even less reason for the streamer to have your attention in 2020, particularly as other competitors “claw back” the original content they once leased to the streamer, and as Netflix opens new markets in Southwest Asia.
