Netflix revealed that it will spend more than $ 17 billion on content this year, according to its first-quarter earnings report.
“As we noted earlier, Covid-19’s production delays in 2020 will lead to a 2021 slate weighed more heavily in the second half with a large number of returning franchises,” the company said in its letter to shareholders. “And while the roll-out of vaccines around the world is very uneven, we are back up and running and producing safely in every major market, with the exception of Brazil and India. Assuming this continues, we will spend more than $ 17 billion in cash on content this year and will continue to deliver an amazing array of titles to our members this year with more originals than last year. “
That’s a notable increase from the streamer’s 2020 spend of $ 11.8 billion, as the pandemic caused industry-wide production delays and a 2019 content release of $ 13.9 billion.
During the first quarter, Netflix’s most watched shows were the first season of ‘Firefly Lane’, with 49 million households tuning in during the first 28 days of the series, Season 3 of ‘Cobra Kai’ (45 million), ‘Fate: The Winx Saga ”(57 million) and“ Ginny & Georgia ”(52 million), the company said.
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On the film side, Netflix members took to ‘Outside the Wire’ (66 million), ‘Yes Day’ (62 million), ‘I Care a Lot’ (56 million) and the last movie in ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before ”trilogy (51 million).
While the streamer invests in original productions in the local language, he noted that “Who Killed Sara?” Mexico attracted an estimated 55 million viewers in the first four weeks of the service, making it Netflix’s most popular non-English title in the US during that period. Spain’s “Below Zero” brought in 47 million households and Korea’s “Space Sweepers” attracted 26 million viewer households.
Netflix also spotlighted the popular French heist series ‘Lupine’, starring Omar Sy, which attracted 76 million households in its first 28 days on the platform – the most popular new title this quarter.
Earlier in the month, Netflix revealed that Variety exclusive that the Oscar-nominated series including “A Love Song for Latasha”, “Da 5 Bloods”, “Pieces of a Woman” and “Mank” each received significant ratings after the nominees were announced.
While the streamer beat Wall Street’s earnings and revenue forecasts, it missed its own subscriber targets in the first quarter, earning nearly 4 million paying households during the period, significantly below expectations for an increase of 6 million the stock fell by about 11% -hours trading Tuesday.