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State of the Screens

Netflix’s Dilemma: Marketing 700 New Original Series Is A Lot Harder Than Making Them

By April 2, 2018No Comments
Big challenge: Marketing 700 original shows when you’ve already spent $8B developing original content.

Big budget: Netflix plans to spend $2B on advertising this year!

How much content does $8B buy? The answer from Netflix appears to be 700 original TV shows and 80 original movies.

Quick math: That is a pace of 1 original show every 13 hours and 1 original movie every 5 days.

Flashback: ‘War Machine’ Has Been a Minor Hit — and Netflix Needs Minor Hits

Quote from Scott Porch — Reporter @ Decider.
“Netflix isn’t a network like NBC or HBO that puts a lot of marketing into a project, premieres it on a date certain and hopes you watch it. Netflix is a database with thousands of hours of programming, an algorithm-driven interface that shows you things you’re likely to enjoy watching, and a programming philosophy that the Netflix tent should be big enough for Fuller House and Chef’s Table.”

First impression: TV series were the first engagement for 70%of Netflix customers and 88% for Hulu.

Top genres watched by new Hulu subscribers:
1)
Comedy — 19%
2) Drama — 16%
3) Animation — 10%
4) Sci-fi — 9%

Top genres watched by new Netflix subscribers:
1)
Drama — 21%
2) Comedy — 11%
3) Thrillers — 9%
4) Crime — 8%
5) Mysteries — 8%

More:
1)
Peak Documentary Has Arrived in TV Too

2) Could Blockbuster Video Have Been Netflix?

3) Can the Shortform Video Market Make a Comeback?

4) The forgotten story of AOL’s In2TV, which helped invent binge TV way before Netflix

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.