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Netflix Wants 50% Of Its Library To Be Original Content (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix is looking to shift its content mix even further towards original TV and movies, with a goal of achieving a 50 percent mix between its own programming and stuff licensed for its use by outside studios. The 50-50 target was revealed by Netflix CFO David Wells at the Goldman Sach's Communacopia conference on Tuesday, and Wells added that they'd like to hit that mix sometime over the course of the next few years. As for its progress so far, Wells said Netflix is already about "one-third to halfway" to that ratio, having launched 2015 hours of original programming in 2015, and with the intend of achieving a further 600 hours by the end of 2016. The benefit for Netflix with a shift to self-generated content is that the licensing situation is much simpler, and the investment made represents a cost that continues to deliver value long after the initial spend. Licensing arrangements with outside TV and film distributors have a fixed term, and thus represent a recurring cost if you want to continue offering their content in your library.
What made Netflix great was selection. That's why they're so widely subscribed. The only way the ratio is going to look like that is if they're no longer carrying so much of everyone else's content. That won't be good for subscribers, who will get less for their money.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
From where will we obtain any given movie or TV show we want to watch that is not Netflix/Amazon/etc. original content? Right now the Netflix DVD service still has by far the widest selection - things like all the old British shows, old movies, all the stuff that is really desirable to watch but no longer is worth the cost to license it. I tried to find a copy of the 1960 version of the movie The Time Machine - only available via DVD from Netflix. Are we going to see a resurgence in the DVD service?
12:50 - press return.
Netflix has slowly, but surely, been reducing the breadth of its non-original content. It used to be that Netflix was the go-to streaming service. Now, with Netflix reducing the non-original content, Netflix is turning into just another cable TV channel.
They could try doing what Sirius XM did in radio, and attract existing talent to their programs and channels. A lot of people are attracted to legacy shows, and are not always swayed by the latest hits on TV
I started subscribing to Netflix in 1999. I became a customer because I wanted to be able to watch movies from a variety of studios, not just one. If I just wanted one studio, I'd subscribe to HBO. Notice how Netflix streaming doesn't have that good of content from other studios? Probably because studios realize that if they make agreements with Netflix, they will be working with and helping one of their competitors. Like Akbar said, its a trap.
I think to a certain extent this is a response to existing TV networks or content creators souring on giving streaming deals to Netflix in preference of trying to build their own platforms or outright shunning the internet to keep their existing business model in place.
If the movie studios or television networks aren't willing to license their content to Netflix either because they don't want people to stop watching TV or because they want to sell ads through their own streaming platform, what choice does Netflix have at that point beyond only being able to provide older less popular TV shows and B movies that don't appear to most of their audience?
This leaves Netflix with the only real choice to start producing their own content so that they can sell subscriptions. In that way they're not that much different than HBO that started out as a movie channel and then got into making their own television series and a few original movies, only Netflix didn't start as a cable channel first. Now that HBO has done more to embrace internet streaming without requiring a cable subscription, they're almost in the same business.
If you thought Netflix was going to ever become a one stop shop for all shows and movies you're out of your mind. The film industry saw exactly what happened when iTunes became the far and away dominant platform and how it meant an end to DRM in order to break Apple's hold.
He hardly did any good movies since Happy Gilmore, aside from 50 First Dates. Most of them are soiled by his bizarre bathroom humor - like Big Daddy
Thats the only way to ever hit 50%.
If the movie studios or television networks aren't willing to license their content to Netflix either because they don't want people to stop watching TV or because they want to sell ads through their own streaming platform, what choice does Netflix have at that point beyond only being able to provide older less popular TV shows and B movies that don't appear to most of their audience?
It's not that they don't want to license, it's just that from Netflix's point-of-view it's too expensive as their costs rise.
Make television and movies like music with compulsory licensing? Say anything five years and older gets put into the pool of things that can be broadcast/streamed as part of your service as long as you pay the base royalties. Have the same sort of setup as music does but with a much finer grained reporting. That way everyone that should get paid, is paid.
While five years seems a bit long, that's so streaming and rebroadcast doesn't cut too deeply into the DVD/BluRay sales. That should be plenty of time for that to go through the fans that really want their personal copy at release or to wait for the price to fall or discounted.
And this doesn't stop anyone from making separate deals to get it before the five year date and/or add extras to their service like trivia, blooper reels, and so forth.
Again, the point of copyright was to give people a chance to spread culture around before it is outright given away. Seeing as how locked up it's become, anything that speeds and ease of dissemination is a good thing.
Netflix and Hulu both do that a lot with British shows in the US
They take a show that was on BBC or ITV and then laud it as "A NETFLIX ORIGINAL" when they reshow it in the US a year later. As if they developed it themselves and it wasn't just rebroadcasting shows that already aired in Britain.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Same is happening everywhere. Here in the US, you need Hulu if you want to watch "the Path". Amazon if you want to watch "Man in High Tower". I think Netflix is currently the only place for "Peaky Blinders" or "Luther". New Star Trek is going to be on CBS all Access. My wife's stupid ABC shows are going to be on Yahoo video. Meanwhile BBC is slowly pulling all their content from existing distributors and are setting up their own streaming service - so will need that for Doctor Who or Top Gear.
You have to pick or choose which shows you care to stop watching OR just go back to subscribing to the bloated service that was cable TV because it's getting to the point where the prices are even if you want a good selection of shows.
I miss the days it was just Netflix and Netflix had just about everything.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
So I guess we'll start see lots more titles that start their descriptions with the phrase, "not to be confused with the Block Buster...."
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Fees would have to rise and people really were upset at changes Netflix made in pricing before. They are trying to do as much as possible with the funds that they have.
If copyright was SANE there would be a HUGE library of old programming available. If all the old junk isn't preserved, it would clearly be better content than the modern programming... (which is mostly junk.)
The simple answer is that Netflix benefited by being the 1st. Today every major content owner can create their own service or make exclusive deals from an ever growing list of distributors desperate for content. This is almost EXACTLY like cable/sat channels which is why it has morphed into that direction. The HBO model works best which is why so many channels try to create compelling content of their own before they lose their budgets and become a poor rerun only channel who has to play infomercials all night.
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Example, there are several anime shows listed on Netflix as "Netflix originals" when the reality is that Netflix is the only place outside of japan to watch it (without downloading it illegally)