Carthage College

“Netflixonomics”: The Rise of Netflix Original Programming

Kenneth Hyllberg

CDM 4010W-01

Dr. Jon Bruning

December 11, 2018

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Table of Contents

I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 2
II. Body…………………………………………………………………………………2
III. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 19
IV. Works Cited ………………………………………………………………………... 20
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“Netflixonomics”: The Rise of Netflix Original Programming

Roger Ebert famously said, “No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short

enough.” Ebert, the famed movie critic, in this sense was referring to cinema—the art of moving

images. Movies have been a part of humanity’s culture for over a century now and they have

been constantly evolving and changing over that long timespan. One significant evolution of

cinema has been the marvel of movie and television streaming. No longer do people need to

travel outside their homes to enjoy a film or series. They have an abundance of options to choose

from at their fingertips. There is perhaps no other name more associated with movie and TV

streaming than Netflix. Over the past decade, Netflix has grown to be the top streaming service

for movie and television lovers alike. Not only has Netflix featured an innumerable amount of

movies and television shows, but there have been quite a few that have come from Netflix’s own

studio especially in the recent years. In fact, Netflix’s growing trend has been that of its original

programming. In order to understand this shift from being a curating service to producing its own

Originals, it is important to know the history of Netflix leading up to its current state of Original

programming. Netflix Original’s rise in prominence should also be analyzed and why they are

now so immensely popular. Comparing Netflix Originals to other streaming services will aid in

understanding how Netflix distinguishes itself and remains the top competitor in the industry.

Another important aspect of Netflix Original programming is its implications for the film

industry and how it has impacted movie and television watching overall.

In 2017, half of Americans aged 22-45 did not watch a single hour of cable television. In

the past five years, at least seven million households have “cut the cord” on their cable service

(McBride, “The Market is Dead…”). Today, streaming services are inserting themselves into an

industry previously thought untouchable. With the modern internet connections available today,
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it is difficult to justify paying $100/month for cable television when you can pay significantly

less for just as high a quality of video on a streaming service like Netflix. Netflix is without a

doubt one of the biggest competitors—if not the biggest—in the streaming industry today.

However, many people would probably be surprised to find that the gargantuan streaming service

initially started out as a company that offered online movie rentals.

In 1998, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph co-founded Netflix as it launched its first

DVD rental and sales site, Netflix.com, which only had 30 employees and 925 titles available.

The company used a pay-per-rent model not unlike other rental services like the late Blockbuster.

However, back then when DVDs were relatively new, there were not many video stores that sold

them which made it hard to find physical locations where they could be purchased. This is the

niche that Netflix hoped to fill with its commercial presence online, while being able to ship

these small and light compact discs cheaply (“Netflix, Inc. History”).

By 1999, Netflix had a total inventory of more than 250,000 discs with a staff of 110.

Initially, consumers were able to purchase a rented DVD from Netflix for its retail price, but

Netflix ceased sales of DVDs during this time and ironically enough directed consumers

interested in buying DVDs to Amazon. There is no doubt that in today’s world of giant media

conglomerates, a move like that would immensely hurt Netflix being that it aided an enormous

company like Amazon. But, back then both were not nearly as large as they are now. So, in

return, Amazon would heavily promote Netflix on its site. In September of the same year, Netflix

introduced its first subscription service. Branded the “Marquee Program”, the service allowed

consumers to rent four DVDs for $15.95 per month (“Netflix, Inc. History”). The first main

transition of the company to its modern subscription model, however, was in 2001 when
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subscribers could rent an unlimited number of movies for $20 a month. This shifted to a tiered

pricing system where consumers could rent up to eight DVDs at a time (Tryon).

Fast forward to 2007—Netflix had been shipping over one million DVDs by mail per day

for two years and had developed recommendations to viewers based on their viewing habits and

ratings. This is when Netflix began their online streaming service from a personal computer. This

transition was also when Netflix would start to hone in on its recommendation algorithm. For the

next few years, Netflix would enjoy steady growth and increased subscriber-base and revenue. In

2011, CEO Reed Hastings announced that Netflix would split up its DVD rental and streaming

services into two separate costs. After much protest and alarming drops in its stock, this plan was

cancelled later in the year. However, despite that people claimed this to be Netflix’s biggest

hiccup in its earlier years, the company continued to grow. In January 2013, Netflix had 29.4

million streaming customers (“Netflix, Inc. History”).

Not only did Netflix essentially break 30 million streaming customers in 2013, but it had

also begun to dip its toes in original programming. Back in 2011, Netflix had begun to budget for

original content. This would allow the company to have increased leverage over competitors as

well as becoming less dependent on movie and television studios. The first Netflix Original to

premiere on the service was the House of Cards series in 2013 which was produced by

filmmaker David Fincher and starred Kevin Spacey. How Netflix decided to launch this series is

an example of their superior analytics, algorithm, and marketing teams. Netflix used the data on

the number of people who rented the UK television series House of Cards DVDs and the number

of people who watched political dramas like The West Wing. They also did the same analysis for

those who showed preference for David Fincher films and films Kevin Spacey starred in. The
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following result was a successful political series which Netflix commissioned two seasons right

off the bat (“The Netflix Revolution”).

This data usage was not something that they just started using out of nowhere. Ever since

Netflix had started its DVD rental service, part of what the company did to allure more

consumers was its recommendations to people that were based off their prior DVD rentals cross-

matched with other data like actors, genres, directors, etc. Netflix had years of this data stored

with much more data forthcoming on a consistent basis. This data culminated to give Netflix a

better idea of what people wanted to watch, when they wanted to watch, and how they watched.

Not only that, but they could use this data to make their own content that they could distribute to

their consumers (McCoy).

Netflix Originals also changed the game of how a television series could be made. Prior

mainstream cable television networks have been notorious for giving shows only a chance or two

based off a show’s pilot and its audience/demographic engagement. With Netflix, showrunners

and producers had the chance to create a full season or two of a show. On top of that, most were

allowed to have a creative freedom that otherwise surely would not have been allowed. And thus,

it has been Netflix that has been known for popular and critically acclaimed series (“How Netflix

Is Changing”).

Netflix Originals have since exploded and are all over the service’s viewing platforms. It

is impossible to browse through the collection of movies and shows and not see majority of them

stamped with the Netflix logo on the corner of the title’s splash art. Many of these Originals are

targeted toward a specific audience—an audience that continues to eat up anything that Netflix

dishes out. Netflix’s target audience is the 18-49 age demographic. With their target audience in

mind and knowing their preferences, that creates a recipe for a highly-viewed movie or show. As
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of 2018, it is estimated that more than 90% of Netflix’s consumers regularly watch original

programming (McCoy).

Knowing your audience is sometimes not enough in order to have a large repertoire of

Original content. It also helps to have huge funding toward producing such content. In 2017, it

was estimated that Netflix would spend about $8 billion on its content in 2018. However,

halfway through the year that estimation was updated to project approximately $13 billion on a

cash basis for its content, with 85% of that money going toward its original programming. This

would further help satisfy that 90% of customers that enjoy such original content (Feldman).

With this much money being invested in to its original programming, audiences will get 82

feature films in a year, whereas big Hollywood studios such as Warner Brothers will only send

23 to theaters. They are also producing more than 100 scripted dramas, comedies, documentaries,

and unscripted reality and talk shows. Netflix is even operating an a large global scale, producing

programs in 21 countries worldwide. Goldman Sachs, an American multinational investment

bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City, speculates that as soon as

2022 Netflix could be spending $22.5 billion a year on content—a number not too far off from

the current amount spent on entertainment by all America’s networks and cable companies

combined. In a journal article by The Economist, they describe the strategy of “winner-takes-

most” as “Netflixonomics” (“Television”). Still, there has been called into question the matter of

its sustainability.

Such strategic thought has worked for Netflix. But it is not a process taken lightly. Netflix

has about 2,000 “taste clusters” by seeing what its users watch. The amount of money needed to

make its programs are based on analysis of these taste clusters to see just how well the reach,

draw, and retaining rate of customers will be. It uses this to its advantage and does not have to
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focus on targeting broad demographic groups; rather, it can target more specific audiences for its

programs that Netflix is more than willing to bet will succeed. Once the analysis takes place,

there are about 20 people whose jobs are “greenlighting” projects. Once the projects are green-

lit, executives figure out how to deliver them to the appropriate users and have to take into

account even seemingly small factors like the poster art, which Netflix changes according to its

algorithms and what it thinks the viewer will like (“Television”).

Another reason why the strategy of Netflixonomics has worked for its namesake is

because failures on the service do not cost as much as it does to other networks. For example, if a

show on network television is in a primetime slot, and it fails, well then that would affect other

shows on the same day because now that day is ruined and will not perform well. But for Netflix,

a service in which other shows and movies are not affected by poor performers, they can simply

do away with them (“Television”).

Another aspect of Netflix Originals that allow the company to continue to grow leaps and

bounds are the names and faces it is bringing to the service. In May of 2018, Netflix announced a

deal with former President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, who will be producing

multiple projects to be shown on the streaming service. Never before has a past president had

such an active post-White House role in media as the Obamas are about to do with Netflix

(Gonzalez). Netflix also has signed deals with Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy, two

showrunners well-known in the cable universe for famous shows like Grey’s Anatomy and

Scandal, Glee and American Horror Story respectively. This is just another example of how

Netflix seeks to add more to its repertoire of talent. This in turn will bring in more money, more

shows, and more binge-worthy episodes for its users. An article by Alan Sepinwall from Rolling

Stones says that Netflix’s “strategy of releasing entire seasons at once was a deft
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acknowledgement of the way many viewers were already learning to consume television, and it

has driven both fellow streamers and more traditional outlets to at least experiment with a bigger,

bolder binge-release model” (Sepinwall 130). In addition to this model, users get to

instantaneously experience a variety of shows that might not be as popular on a weekly basis

and/or on cable television: women’s-prison dramedy, Orange is the New Black, and the animated

Hollywood satirical show featuring a hilarious yet sad depiction of depression, BoJack

Horseman. Netflix has wasted no time (and money) in casting as wide a net as possible to ensure

users have “their” show to watch on its service (Sepinwall 130).

Even with such an outpouring of resources into its own movies and shows however, there

are many consumers and critics that have voiced their concerns on the quality of what Netflix has

available for its users. This is a fair point after all; with so many Netflix Original shows and

movies debuting on the service, one might wonder if quality is being sacrificed for quantity.

Patrick Seitz of Investor’s Business Daily reported that the quality of Netflix shows have

decreased in the last two years (Seitz). An analysis was done by Streaming Observer of show

ratings ranging across different streaming platforms and how Netflix compares to them. They

analyzed the quality of original TV shows from services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, and

more. They did this by aggregating reviews from esteemed critic sites like Metacritic and Rotten

Tomatoes who both have ratings on a 1-100 scale. They took the average ratings of original

shows from both of these sites into one rating. Netflix landed at 70, behind six other popular

streaming services including HBO, Hulu, and Amazon. In 2016, Netflix was two positions

higher. However, it seems that in the last two years, even with churning out original shows,

audiences may not be enjoying them as much (Dodson).

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Putting ratings aside too, Netflix has put out many original shows that are more serialized

as opposed to shows that have individual distinctive episodes spanning the course of a season.

Specifically, many of Netflix’s dramas seem to be 13-hour movies—which is not what people

want to sit through. What this essentially means is that there is a tendency for episodes to be

“filler” and not as many interesting things happen to keep the audience hooked. The overall story

suffers because there are more episodes than arguably necessary to tell it. However, that will not

stop Netflix from continuing to produce lengthier seasons of shows if it means people will watch

them regardless. After all, nobody likes to stop a show without seeing how it resolves, and the

way it resolves will only make sense if the rest of the show is viewed first. Still, what this is

doing is influencing even other cable network shows to follow suit. A popular example is AMC’s

hit zombie show The Walking Dead, which has received a lot of flak over the course of its

lifetime for what audiences would call unnecessary filler episodes. But why fix what, Netflix

would probably say, isn’t broken? More episodes for shows means that more people will spend

time on their service (Sepinwall 130).

Despite ratings taking somewhat of a hit and their quality of shows and movies in

question at times, Netflix’s system seems to be working and continues to reel in viewership.

Other companies have noticed this, namely HBO, and have expressed their thoughts on their

streaming service being more like Netflix in order to continue to be a competitive streaming

service. This past summer, HBO’s chief executive, John Stankey, discussed at a town hall

meeting that their company would have to be more “like a streaming giant to thrive in the new

media landscape” (Lee and Koblin). Without explicitly referring to Netflix, Stankey said that the

network would have to evolve its operations and build itself into something bigger and broader

with more content. His goal for the network was to attain more hours of engagement per day, as
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opposed to hours a week. This is something that HBO “struggles” with as they are known for

having a weekly Sunday lineup of episodes that premiere on a weekly basis as opposed to

Netflix’s style of debuting shows that include dropping all episodes of a season in one night (Lee

and Koblin). Needless to say, content sells—especially if there’s $13 billion worth being

invested.

It is not just Netflix’s original shows and movies that have helped increase its popularity

over the very recent years—it is its large selection of original stand-up programs. Comedy

Central used to be the go-to for stand-up specials. Now, Netflix has risen to the top as it has

continued to produce more and more specials with more and more A-list comedians. To cynics

who would claim that Netflix just has the money to spend on more comedy specials, there is

more to it than that. Lisa Nishimura is Netflix’s Vice President of Original Documentary and

Comedy Programming. Robbie Praw is Netflix’s Director of Original Stand-up Comedy.

Together, they are “the most powerful gatekeepers in stand-up” (Zinoman) and have used

Netflix’s insanely detailed metrics and algorithms to uproot the traditions of the stand-up

industry. The New York Times reported how the two were able to nab Dave Chapelle, a legendary

stand-up comedian, but one who had not performed a special in 13 years. He signed to do three

specials for Netflix in 2017. Netflix also has signed deals with another legend in the comedy

industry, Jerry Seinfeld. The more stand-up specials that Netflix produces and premiere, the more

they hone in on a previously under-tapped market for its users. It is estimated that as of

September 2018, half of Netflix’s 130 million subscribers have watched a stand-up special in the

last year, and a third of which who have watched three. Netflix’s strategy—and the reason why it

has done exceedingly well in the stand-up world—is that they have found a way time and time
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again to find that balance between how many specials they premiere and the quality of those who

perform in them (Zinoman).

Still, with all the efforts that have gone into the abundance of Originals and specials

available to subscribers of the service, there remain critiques about the sustainability of the

company’s fiscal practices—considering the egregious amount of money that has gone in to all

of its content. As of July 2018, Netflix was about $6.5 billion in debt. That is 93% more than the

year before. Additionally, last year the announcement was made by The Walt Disney Company

would be making its own streaming service. This means that it will be pulling all of its content

off of all other streaming services—including Netflix. Some of Disney’s top movies, including

Star Wars and Marvel titles, are huge draws to Netflix for obvious reasons. However, with the

eventual launch of the Disney streaming service, Netflix will no longer be the service to go to for

those titles. Those popular movies along with numerous other films like Toy Story and Frozen

will without a doubt draw a huge crowd. What is concerning for Netflix is that Disney already

has its juggernaut titles from years back that will be ready to go once its service launches.

Meanwhile, Netflix continues to spend a lot of money making its own films and television shows

in attempts to quell the need to switch to any other service. Some market analyzers have already

begun to predict that Netflix will cease to be the number one streaming service within the next

few years (McBride, “The Market is Dead”).

Netflix’s stock also is a representation of such concerns. Even though Netflix (NFLX) has

seen significant growth by over 8,000% in recent years and has been favored in popularity, its

stock is still seen as overpriced. Stephen McBride, Chief Analyst at Rich Hedge, goes into further

detail outlining potential issues on the market. With the company apparently struggling to net a

consistent number of subscribers, it doubled the amount of money it put toward marketing in the
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first half of 2018—spending $456 million in the United States alone. And with 2.66 million new

subscribers being acquired, that is about $170 per new user. With the standard pricing of the

service ($10.99 per month) that equates to about 16 months needed in order to “break even” on

each new user (McBride, “Please Don’t”). With Netflix having such a large amount of debt and

turning only a relatively small profit, their continuous spending (Netflix also just paid a reported

$100 million a year to continue licensing the popular show, Friends), and unstable stock pricing,

McBride, in a recent Forbes article, says that “Netflix has three bad choices: continue borrowing

billions and bury itself deeper in debt…dramatically raise its subscription prices…or cut back on

making new content,” (McBride, “Netflix’s Worst Nightmare…”).

Netflix has, regardless, cemented itself in contemporary culture as a giant in the

streaming services industry. There is no question about it. What is in question is if Netflix and

film festivals can go hand-in-hand. Over the past couple years, Netflix has been a part of

different popular film festivals like the Sundance Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. These

movies have gone straight to the streaming service following their debut at the festivals.

However, the fact that Netflix’s movies are not in theaters bothers others and puts into question

the validity of movies that should be admitted into festivals.

An editorial from Cineaste, a quarterly film magazine, discussed this divide in thought,

referencing back to early 2017 when Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival clashed over the

service’s movies. Netflix’s own movies, Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),

were accepted in the festival; but, the movies did not premiere in French cinemas. They only

were in limited theatrical releases in the United States. This began a controversy. The Cannes

Jury president Pedro Almodovar made a statement saying that films should not compete for the

Palme d’Or if they did not premiere in theaters as well. Some audience members jeered upon the
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Netflix logo appearing at the company’s two feature premieres. On the other hand, actor and jury

member Will Smith defended Netflix and said that “Netflix has done nothing but broaden my

children’s global cinematic comprehension,” (“Editorial”).

Despite opposition, Netflix has continued to have increased presence in festivals at

Venice, Telluride, Toronto, New York, and Austin. Film critics think that as Netflix Originals

continue to be premiered at festivals, more and more people will show acceptance to Netflix on

the Hollywood stages. Netflix has already come out on top of the Emmy nomination

competition, beating out HBO with a total number of 112 nominations. With the successes of

some of its original feature films as well, Netflix has had its sights on the Best Picture Oscar.

Already Netflix’s films like Roma, a black-and-white Spanish-language family drama by Alfonso

Cuarón, and the Coen brothers’ western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs have seen

raving reviews at numerous festivals over the past months. Perhaps an Oscar nomination and

even a win is not too far off the radar. Julie Huntsinger, executive director of the Telluride Film

Festival, said about Netflix’s films: “Despite some people trying to portray this otherwise,

Netflix believes in giving a filmmaker all the tools they need to make a movie and leaving them

alone. That unto itself is the most important thing. They’re aware of their behemoth position in

this world, but I think they really love cinema,” (Rottenberg). According to a report in the

Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has even considered an exclusive theatrical release for Roma. Not

only would this be a landmark move for the company, but no doubt this would also appeal to

those who would say a movie has no right to appear in festivals if they are direct-to-service

releases (Rottenberg).

There have been multiple directors and actors who have voiced their opinions on Netflix

and the film industry. Ethan and Joel Coen, when asked about working with Netflix, responded
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with the notion that Netflix is the type of company who they knew would be willing to invest in

their movie. They said that a traditional movie studio would not have financed it. Joel Coen said

that “The more fundamental thing is that [Netflix is] stepping up and spending money on movies

that aren’t Marvel comic movies or big action franchise movies and that type of thing, which is

pretty much the business of the studios now. We can’t argue with that,” (Rottenberg).

A vocal opponent of Netflix has been legendary director Steven Spielberg, who criticized

the way Netflix only releases movies in cinemas at festivals in order to be eligible for Oscar

considerations. Spielberg, on a press tour for his film Ready Player One, said, “I don’t believe

that films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week

should qualify for the Academy Award nomination,” (Sims). Christopher Nolan has also

previously been outspoken against Netflix, calling their model of theatrical presentation

“mindless” and “bizarre” (Sims). Spielberg, however, does not all-together view the streaming

service unfavorably. He understands that big studios are not as willing anymore to take chances

on smaller directors and independent films. Rather, they are much more likely to stick to

guaranteed box office hits. Netflix on the other hand has shown that it is willing to invest in those

other films and take more risks. Spielberg thinks this is a good thing. But, what Spielberg and

Nolan have fundamental problems with—pointing back to an overarching theme—is the

simultaneous premiere of both a theatrical release and release on the streaming service. If more

and more movies find themselves going to streaming services—movies that would have

otherwise been Oscar-quality due to the motivation of cinematic competition—Spielberg is

afraid that the future of mainstream filmmaking could end up being wave after wave of subpar

sequels and franchise movies (Sims).

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Spielberg, though touching on the subject only briefly, brings up an important point when

it comes to the difference between Netflix (and streaming services in general) and major film

studios. Streaming services can afford to snag different big-budget passion projects and other

cinematic endeavors that film studios would not dare to touch. Scott Mendelson, a film analysist

at Forbes, puts it like this: “The very things that Netflix…look good are the very items that

studios, which have to answer for the individual performance of each release, are hesitant to

distribute,” (Mendelson). Like Spielberg said, film studios stick to what will make them the most

money—big intellectual property (IP) franchises. Studios have it rough in the sense that the

movies they put out are heavily scrutinized, especially when it comes to shareholders and the

media. For example, Sony rebooted the Ghostbusters IP with a new movie in 2016. For many

various reasons, the movie was torn to pieces by both the media and critics. This made Sony look

very bad. It is important to note that it did not matter that Sony had other releases the same year

that were relatively successful (Sausage Party, Don’t Breathe, The Shallows). Stakeholders just

saw the large underwhelming “failure” that was Ghostbusters (Mendelson).

Meanwhile, if Netflix takes a risk on a feature film that also happens to be the director’s

passion project, and it still bombs (a la the Duncan Jone’s film Mute)…there is not nearly as

much scrutiny and repercussions for two reasons: the first is that there are numerous other

original films that help to distract stakeholders; the second is that even though the film got

terrible ratings, it still did the job of essentially advertising to people that Netflix is the place for

the star power and prestige like Paul Rudd, Alexander Skarsgård, and Sam Rockwell. So, when

Netflix announces that director Martin Scorsese is making a mob drama starring Robert DeNiro

and Al Pacino called The Irishman, it does not matter how the film is received in the grand

scheme of things. What matters is that Netflix has a mob drama starring Robert DeNiro and Al
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Pacino and is being helmed by a director most famous for his critically-acclaimed mob movies.

This only helps to further attract consumers to subscribe to the service (Mendelson). Netflix

CEO Reed Hastings himself said that “Very few people will join Netflix just because of a single

title, but there is a tipping point. You have one more title that has great excitement, that you are

hearing a lot about, and that triggers you to finally sign up for Netflix,” (Kay).

Netflix Originals play a much larger role in how television is viewed as a whole. By

adding their own content to their streaming service, Netflix allows consumers to take a more

active role in their television watching. Chuck Tryon at Fayetteville State University argues that

traditional channel surfing on cable TV is a passive act, while finding shows and watching them

online is an active process—the consumer gets to pick and choose (to a degree) what gets

recommended to them through their own viewing habits and personal ratings. Netflix Originals

as well as other shows available on the streaming service also have reprogrammed the way

viewers take in content. The phrase “binge-watching” is one that has become almost common

knowledge and synonymous with Netflix. This binge-watching comes from two different ways

people watch shows on Netflix. One is what Tryon refers to as a discovery mode—where

consumers either find new shows or rediscover old ones that they might have originally watched

if and when it aired on cable TV or ones that they simply missed altogether. The other way Tryon

calls “instant mode”—when Netflix releases full seasons of a show all at once, which they have

used to their advantage and, as Tryon states, “has been used to emphasize the overlapping

promises of prestige, plenitude, participation, and personalization,” (Tryon).

There are further sociological aspects to participating in binge-watching activities of

Netflix Originals. When a new original show is released, people immediately join in with others

in joint conversations about the show. One can participate in dialogues and interact with others
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through Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Tryon’s journal article discusses “just-in-time fandom,”

when fans of a show all are able to watch episodes of a series that have just been released

simultaneously and can follow up with more conversations. The fact that Netflix releases full

seasons at once also gives audiences the feeling that they are still a part of a “live” broadcast,

even though what they are watching is far from it. If one is not able to immediately watch the

newest season of Stranger Things, then that person is likely to feel left out of the conversation,

whether online or in fellow social circles. Nobody likes to feel left out of anything, so that person

experiences that desire to watch the newest Netflix Original on the dot and join in on “the water-

cooler moments that supposedly have been lost in an era of fragmented TV viewing,” (Tryon).

Netflix has been able to change the former negative connotations that came from “binge-

watching” traditional television. In 1992, James Endrst of the Hartford Courant called the

excessive watching of television, “Acute Television Toxicity” (Endrst). The term “bingeing”

lends itself to a lack of self-control and has also been associated with unhealthy lifestyles and has

been linked to depression. However, in a Wired article by Grant McCracken, the act of bingeing

TV was referred to as “feasting”—viewers could pick and choose and be intentional with what

they want to watch. “Bingeing suggests junk food, while feasting is for a more sophisticated

palate,” (Tryon). In the past few years, Netflix has performed research and surveys that have

yielded data that supports their claims that bingeing has become “the new normal” (“Netflix

Declares Binge”). Netflix would argue that the negative connotation of binge-watching came

from the fact that traditional television was harder to watch with peoples’ busy schedules which

took time away that they did not have. Binge-watching is and should be associated with good

quality content, Netflix would say. As House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon put it, bad

television involves a distracted TV viewer “putting Hot Pockets in a toaster,” (Buder). Now, with
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Netflix, viewers are able to watch a full season of whatever they want, whenever they want,

wherever they want, and feel satisfied doing so (Tryon).

Part of what makes Netflix so fascinating is that it has become such a multifaceted and

complex aspect of contemporary cinema, both from a technological aspect and a cultural aspect.

Movie watching has quite literally never been easier. Netflix continues to push and cement itself

in an industry that can be very critical at times, but also innovative and forward-thinking. The

most important thing to keep in mind is that Netflix itself continues to change in an ever-

evolving society. There has not been any sign that Netflix intends to stagnate. Television and

movie streaming as a whole is still changing the way things were previously thought to always

exist. With the introduction to Netflix Originals in the recent years, filmmaking and television-

making continue to shift in ways that are not yet fully formed.

That is what makes the future exciting, especially for an average movie-lover. Concerns

can still be had about the financial sustainability of a company that continues to dramatically

outspend its competition. There can still be plenty of hesitations about the role Netflix Original

films have in film festivals. The quality of its content can always be called into question. But

regardless, Netflix is contributing to an overall discussion on the cinema itself—one that

everyone has the chance to be a part of. As it has been pointed out, Netflix’s original content

gives its audience a chance to experience cinema and television in new ways.

In this thesis, I sought to learn why Netflix Originals have emerged at such a significant

rate ever since their first appearance in 2013. What I found was that besides specific qualitative

reasons that relate to Netflix Originals themselves, there were additional fundamental reasons

relating to the streaming platform as a whole that aided in the prominence of its original content.

Netflix has a complex recommendation algorithm unparalleled by any other streaming service.
 Hyllberg 19

They obviously put an outrageous amount of money toward getting an A-list type quality of

talent and performers to both make and star in their content. And, whether or not one agrees with

it, Netflix is beginning to more consistently put out features that will compete for awards,

hopefully resulting in an overall better standard of films. Finally, it is the way Netflix has had

sociological impacts that also help to explain the rise of its original content.

There has been much speculation as to what the future holds for a streaming service like

Netflix. It is impossible to say at this point with all the different factors mentioned that are

constantly moving around. From my research, I have been left with a more realistic, yet

optimistic outlook on Netflix. I suspect it will continue to grow in bigger ways, if not even a

monetary one, and I look forward to hearing about and seeing the 80+ original features and series

that will premiere in the future. Only time will tell if it will hold up against the competition and

criticism from its opponents. But what no one can dispute is that Netflix, along with its

Originals, has forever changed the status quo and left its mark in cinematic history.
 Hyllberg 20

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