Netflix has revealed that it will continue to apply greater spending to build its content, announcing a $17 billion USD budget for 2021.
Variety has obtained a quote from Netflix stating, “We’ll spend over $17 billion in cash on content this year and we’ll continue to deliver an amazing range of titles for our members with more originals this year than last.” This is a noteworthy uptick from the streamer’s 2020 budget when it spent $11.8 billion USD due to production delays caused by the pandemic. However, although the streamer continuously exceeds its revenue projections, it still missed its own Q1 subscriber targets of 6 million subscribers.
In a recent shareholders report, Netflix has revealed that their subscription additions only grew by a total of 3.98 million customers globally. The number hit below expectations, as the company saw an increase of 16 million subscribers during the same time last year. Despite the slowing subscription additions, Netflix has also become more profitable, seeing its net income spike to $1.7 billion USD in the first quarter alone. For comparison, the streamer’s 2019 annual profit was only $1.87 billion USD.
Due to the subscriber miss, Netflix shares fell 10 percent in after-hours trading, almost immediately after the news was announced. The board has approved a $5 billion stock-buyback program to begin the next current quarter. Though numbers of subscribers were not on target, Netflix is confident and expects a “a strong second half [of 2021] with the return of new seasons of some of our biggest hits and an exciting film lineup.”
