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Netflix's Original Content Library Is Growing By 185% Each Year (cordcutting.com)
An anonymous reader writes: From Q1 of 2012 to Q1 of 2016, Netflix has added an incredible 111 original series and films. The numbers translate to an average quarterly growth rate of 34.22% and an average annual growth rate of 185.41%. And there is reason to believe that future growth rates could be even higher -- with competition coming from all sides, Netflix is likely to keep pushing more and more cash into original content. Those wondering why Netflix has grown increasingly interested in owning the shows it airs, you have to realize that not long ago the streaming company was struggling to snap any good TV show from cable channels. The New York Times' profile of House of Cards' Beau Willimon, from 2014, sheds more light into this : Around three years ago, Netflix realized it had a problem: It was paying large sums to license other people's content -- TV shows and movies produced by other companies -- in order to then show them to you, the Netflix subscriber, at home. This initially proved successful, but there were two troubling aspects to this model: 1) It left Netflix very vulnerable to competition, since the shows and movies it licensed could, theoretically, be licensed by anyone willing to outbid them, and 2) the most popular TV shows, episodic dramas like "CSI" and sitcoms like "The Big Bang Theory," were already being sold for huge deals into syndication at basic cable channels like TBS and USA. What was left to Netflix were the kind of serialized shows that don't typically play well in syndication, like "Lost" and "Breaking Bad," which have complicated story arcs that compel a viewer to watch all the episodes in order. Traditionally, while these kinds of serialized shows could be big hits in their initial broadcast runs, they proved tough sells to aftermarkets, precisely because of the demands they placed on the audience.
Even in the age of DVRs and streaming I can't be bothered with serialized shows. I'm pretty sure that the serialization of CSI is what killed the show. Early on it was like watching Dragnet; a criminal show with some steady characters with a bit of personality but no so much that you cared about their personal lives. Then it turned more and more into incorporating their personal lives and while the show still mainly dwelled on an episodic case you had to be dragged into this personal drama story arc that seemingly took an entire season or two to resolve. It got really boring when the last 15 minutes of every show ended up being Catherine Willows staring off into the sunset while some neo-hippy/alternatrend acoustic ballad droned on as she pondered the spirit of her dead father or what drug dealer her daughter was buying meth from and how she earned the money to buy it.
Not to mention that Lady Heather was the lamest attempts to "sex up" a TV show in the history of the medium.
Speaking for myself, I came to Netflix for the back-catalog movies and TV shows. Their original shows are just icing on the cake. But lately Netflix seems to think that they can be just another TV network like HBO, and have neglected what made most of their customers subscribe to their service in the first place.
As their back-catalog shrinks, so do the chances I'll renew my subscription each month. If I wanted to subscribe to HBO, I would just go subscribe to HBO.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I disagree. I joined Netflix for the same reason you did, and grew concerned as copyright holders became intent on denying Netflix quality content. When they started producing their own content, I thought, "That's smart. Even if you just come up with a couple shows, it could spur interest."
After a couple years of new Netflix content, they produce a couple of my favorite shows. I definitely do not want them to stop. What's more, I do subscribe to HBO, and it's largely so that I can view their original programming. I also subscribe to Hulu. None of these has anything resembling a complete catalog, but putting them all together, I get to watch most of what I'd want to watch.
I think this is the right move forward-- not a good endpoint, but a good "next logical step". Streaming services with limited catalogs and great original programming will continue to hammer away at traditional TV, and you'll see more and more cord-cutters. I don't know how long it will take, but eventually the situation will become dire enough for traditional networks that they'll have to make their properties available on streaming services to make any money off of them. It'll be the Spotifycation of TV.
Give that a few years, and you'll see some method arise where you can pay a single subscription and get everything you want-- a complete back-catalog plus HBO/Netflix/Hulu originals. Now, that might be by some arrangement where these major providers agree on some common platform, or it may just be licensing deals (e.g. "Netflix pays HBO to get all their programming on a 1-year delay."). But that's the endpoint we want, and I still think it's going to happen.