Netflix Content Spending, 2016-2020 [CHART]

Chart: Netflix Content Spending

Netflix continues to invest in producing original shows. In April, the company announced it was offering $2 billion in debt to fund content spending and other expenses. This was Netflix’s second debt financing round in six months. In October 2018, it offered $2 billion in debt to fund content spending.  

According to Netflix, it spent $12.04 billion on content in 2018. That figure will rise to around $15 billion this year and to more than $17 billion in 2020, per estimates from investment bank BMO Capital Markets. (These expenditures are calculated on a cash basis—before Netflix writes off the cost of original productions. The costs after the write-off are significantly lower. For example, in 2018, the post-write-off figure that Netflix reported was $8 billion.)

Original content investment from Netflix has spawned a glut of shows, including titles like “Glow” and “Russian Doll.” The share of original content that Netflix added to its platform doubled between 2016 and 2018, per a report from TV analytics firm Ampere Analysis. Last year, originals accounted for about half of the content added to Netflix. Read the rest at eMarketer.