Netflix won’t be streaming live television or sports any time soon, but it is looking to expand its range of genres.
Appearing onstage with New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook conference on Tuesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the company would spend $5 billion next year on new original shows, reports the New York Times.
Hastings dismissed the idea that there is an oversaturation of viewing material, instead suggesting that was not nearly enough content for an ever-growing international audience.
As Netflix hopes to corner the international market with fresh, original content, it will look to produce high-quality shows in different genres, said Hastings. As it stands, analysts predict that Netflix could be churning out 40 new shows a year by 2018, notes Bloomberg.
“We're hopeful that we'll, over time, make a great Bollywood show, make a great anime show,” Hastings said Tuesday.
Bollywood and anime are uncharted territories for Netflix. While these new shows may only be watched by a niche audience, they represent an effort by Netflix to reach every target audience possible around the world.
“You go beyond the normal spectrum to get quality and you really stretch to the things that you can do. On-demand and the Internet really gives you that power,” Hastings said. “When you have incredible distribution, then you have to open the front end of the funnel to have incredible producers around the world.”