Netflix has tons of different content for tons of different people, but it’s looking to diversify its content offerings even further. According to CEO Reed Hastings, the company actually wants to start creating its own Bollywood original shows to appeal to more viewers, and is also looking to get into the anime business as well. Anime is an area where Hulu has always beaten Netflix, but with the addition of original content, Netflix may finally turn things around.
If there’s one thing that Netflix has above all of its streaming competitors, it’s a large and varied lineup of quality original shows to offer its subscribers. On top of being a good way to provide content for the platform that’s free from licence expiration dates, Netflix Originals also serve as a means to attract new subscribers to the streaming service, which is why the company is planning to expand its reach by producing more unique shows aimed at less traditional markets. In an onstage interview with New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook conference, Hastings spoke of the possibility of creating original anime and Bollywood shows aimed at audiences on a global scale. “We’re hopeful that we’ll over time make a great Bollywood show, make a great anime show,” said Hastings, explaining that audiences would be “more segmented, but again the internet let’s you do that,” also suggesting that “the key [is] in that enablement.” Hastings pointed to the success of its recent internationally-focused series, Narcos, as an example of how the model works. “It’s a very different kind of show,” explained Hastings, as it involved Netflix teaming up with the “oldest movie company in the world – French company Gaumont – to make a production in Bogota, Columbia featuring Brazilian actors and directed by a Brazilian.”
