Netflix plans to spend $6 billion on new shows, blowing away all but one of its rivals
Netflix said in its Q3 earnings report Monday that it will spend $6 billion next year on content, making it one of the biggest spenders in media in the category.
According to Boston Consulting Group and SNL Kagan data from this year, Netflix is in second place among its TV network and subscription video-on-demand peers. It predicted that Netflix would spend $5 billion on content this year. However, Gullane Capital Partners pegged the figure as high as low tens of billions.
Even with the projected $6 billion in spending, Netflix won't beat the current category leader. ESPN was projected by Boston Consulting Group and SNL Kagan to spend $7.3 billion on content in 2016, with increased prices mostly due to sports league rights. Sports, widely considered by many to be one of the live TV viewing draws, is a much less risky investment due to its existing and reliable audience.
NBC came in third place with $4.3 billion in spending, and CBS was in fourth with an estimated $4 billion content budget. Those too include sports rights, which means Netflix is leading by far in terms of spending on episodic and film programming.
The next big subscription-on-demand content spender was Amazon, which came in fifth. It was estimated to spend $3.2 billion by the end of 2016 on content. Amazon previously said in July it plans to double its spending on video content and triple its spending on originals during the latter half of 2017.