Netflix’s global subscriber base continues to rise, with newer initiatives from the SVOD, such as ad-tiers combined with a crackdown on account sharing, proving to help further support their growth across all regions.
Content remains key for Netflix as its last quarter saw the release of brand new phenomenons such as ‘Baby Reindeer’ along with the return of fan-favourite ‘Bridgerton’ for its third season. The SVOD has prioritised the production of its own originals over acquiring first windows from third-parties in recent years, resulting in a steady flow of new series that has endured multiple industry-wide disruptions to production over the past few years
Show Tracker reveals that Netflix's content growth strategy was so aggressive that the effects of the COVID pandemic on production only resulted in a minor reduction in content output for 2021, with growth recovering in the following year. Despite the prolonged writers and actors strike of 2023, the SVOD is so far making a good pace in 2024 on the Drama side with 25 releases so far this year, with over 100 additional US scripted series upcoming.
This focus on original production has affected Netflix’s acquisition strategy abroad. Where once the SVOD would acquire multiple US titles for worldwide exclusivity in the first window, this activity has greatly reduced, with only three major multi-market first window acquisitions occurring since 2022.
Some more recent opportunities have opened up for distributors this year. BBC Studios licensed two of their own series to Netflix in the US (‘Boiling Point’ and ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’), after licensing ‘Inside Man’ two years previously to global markets, where it was branded as a Netflix Original. Netflix’s third-party series acquisitions have instead been focused on high-profile library series that provide high engagement on the service. Acquired titles like ‘Suits’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Young Sheldon’ all made it into the top ten of series in terms of hours viewed on Netflix for the first half of 2024.
While Netflix acquisition activity of new scripted series has been limited, its acquisition of movies from third-party studios has remained high, limited only by their ability to win Pay-One deals with major studios, depending on the market.
Sony has remained true to its reputation as an arms dealer, providing Pay-One deals for Netflix across US, Germany, India, Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea and Pan-Regional Asia in the past two years. NBCUniversal has strong engagement with the service in Australia and South Korea.
Other markets such as France, Latin America and Spain have seen very limited Pay-One acquisitions from Netflix, with Poland seeing none at all. French regulations make Pay-One debuts of theatrical releases on streaming services extremely challenging, while Latin America, Poland and Spain are traditionally stronger markets for studio vertical integration. Netflix in Canada likewise has very limited acquisitions from major studios, with most of these titles promised to the likes of Bell and Corus in volume deals, so instead is concentrating on acquiring a large number of indie movies to supplement their original output.
While newer strategic changes to the SVOD’s business model may be the current driver of subscriber growth and revenue, a steady flow of content will always be important for Netflix to see continued success. On the series front, Netflix seems to be in a comfortable place to provide new series from within, but there is a willingness to engage with distributors for most notably UK based content, to further supplement some of their biggest hits set in or produced from this market. Meanwhile the value of the biggest blockbusters released at theatrical is not lost on Netflix as they continue to seek to become the Pay-One home for the biggest movies of each year, regardless of who is distributing them.
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