Netflix is reaching new highs after hitting 40 million subscribers worldwide and is looking to continue its expansion of original content. That new content may include movies and documentaries.
On Monday, Netflix had nothing but good news for investors, announcing that it now has 31 million subscribers, passing HBO, and its share price jumped. CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos also spoke with investors and made several revelations about the future of the company.
According to Deadline, Sarandos said that Netflix is “actively looking at documentaries” and will “keep my mind wide open” for other genres. He also shot down a report that Netflix was interested in sports.
Entertainment Weekly notes that Sarandos did say that they plan on doubling its budget for original content next year.
When it comes to movies, Sarandos explained that this is one television tradition that they haven’t been able to break, since they get most movies around the same time as pay networks.
“Even though that window is moving, I don’t know that it’s moving aggressively enough for people who really do have experience more in a demand or more on-demand lifestyle around their content,” Sarandos said. “So I think that the more we could be aggressive with windowing by taking more control over the content earlier in the process, that would be good for our members.”
There’s no word on what these movies might be, but it is interesting in that it could be another venue for indie projects. However, it wouldn’t be all that different from the way many smaller films are released now. Many are made available on Video On Demand services at home on the same day as theaters, so the only thing making movies going directly to Netflix more appealing would be no additional cost beyond what you’re already paying each month.
Of course, original movies will help Netflix compete with HBO in another arena, since HBO produces its own films already.
image: Netflix