Netflix Plans $8 Billion Spend on New Content in 2018

Netflix has very big plans for 2018 and has announced this week that it plans to spend $8 billion on new content in 2018. That massive amount of money will be used for all sorts of new content from shows and movies to comedy specials. The amount is significantly more than the $6 billion it spent on original content last year.

Only ESPN spent more for content last year than Netflix ringing in at $7.3 billion reports NBC News. Netflix needs to spend big money to keep growing its huge subscriber base with other streaming platforms ready to spend significantly as well. Netflix announced its Q3 earnings this week and noted that during the quarter that ended September 30, it added 4.45 million new subscribers overseas and 850,000 in the US.

That means that during three months the network added a total of 109.3 million customers. Competition in the streaming space is heating up with Disney removing all its content from Netflix and starting its own streaming service. TV networks are also starting to launch their own paid streaming platforms, notably, CBS has its own streaming platform where you have to subscribe to watch Star Trek: Discovery.

Samsung has also promised to invest in streaming shows online. The real question is what will these new streaming services do to lure buyers to part with their money. It’s not clear if CBS is seeing a big uptick in subscribers for Star Trek: Discovery. Unlike Netflix, you do have to come back each week to watch Discovery, you can’t binge the show. Netflix is increasing its subscription prices by a few bucks monthly on most plans to help cover the massive content investment.