Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) might increase the amount of money it spends on original series more than expected. Spending on original productions could increase to 20 percent of Netflix's overall spending within a few years, Ted Sarandos, the company's chief content officer, told the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That's more than the company had previously indicated.
Meanwhile, the company updated its "Long Term View," a document it publishes on the investor relations section of its website. Among the changes noted by BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield was the addition of "looser language about the size of original programming spending."
The document had previously said the company would spend less than 10 percent on original programming. The new version reads: "We'll steadily grow our original content spending," Greenfield highlighted. That could be bad news for third-party content owners who are seeking to sell programming to Netflix, Greenfield wrote.
The company still identifies HBO as its biggest long-term competitor for buying content among a group of companies that includes other online distributors like Hulu and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) as well as cable networks.
For more:
- The Hollywood Reporter had this story
- BTIG's Rich Greenfield had this blog post (reg. req.)
- Read the Netflix Long Term View here
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