More Than Half of Netflix’s New Library Titles in 2018 Were Original Content

Back in September of 2016, Netflix said they were in the middle of a “multiyear transition and evolution toward more of our own content.” In a few years, their hope was to have 50% of their library be comprised of original content. And in just a couple years, the streaming service has made great strides towards that goal.

A new report by research firm Ampere Analysis has revealed that among all the releases available in the United States that went live throughout the year 2018, 51% of them were Netflix originals. However, when it comes to the entirety of the Netflix library, the streamer still has a long way to go in order to meet their goal.

When we talk about Netflix originals, we’re looking at projects that were entirely produced by Netflix, and we’re also talking about co-productions like collaborating with Sony on The Crown and Lionsgate for Orange is the New Black. And the number of those projects has more than doubled the 25% of new, original programming that hit Netflix by December 2016.

But at the same time, even though all the new titles that hit Netflix last year were 51% original programs, only 11% of all the titles that exists on Netflix (in the United States) are original programs. That number might seem low, but that’s quite a bit more than the 4% that was recorded in 2016. That’s also significantly more than Hulu and Amazon Prime, each of which only have 1% original content in their own libraries.

While many subscribers balked at the idea of Netflix reducing their library of acquisitions of movies and TV shows from other studios, this was the smartest decision the streaming service could have made. With Disney, WarnerMedia and NBC Universal all making moves to launch their own streaming services, the ocean of titles to acquire will drop significantly. Or at the very least, the price will probably go up since all of these media companies want to make titles exclusively available on their own streaming service. So Amazon and Hulu better start ramping up their original content production.

But what about viewers? Are they tuning into this original content as much as Netflix wants them to? Shows like Friends and The Office have been among the most popular offerings on Netflix, so are subscribers watching original content as much? Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said in January, “Today, I’d say the vast majority of the content that is watched on Netflix are our original content brands.” Even though a lot of their acquired content is still extremely popular with subscribers, supposedly a majority of the most watched shows on Netflix are original shows. Netflix’s unscripted content especially is among the most viewed original programming.

Even though Netflix originals may not be quite as desirable as other library content, subscribers will soon find themselves signing up for other streaming services in order to watch some of their favorite movies and TV shows that don’t come from Netflix. But they’ll likely stick with Netflix since the library of original programming has a variety of fanbases spread across various genres. Sooner than later, Netflix will have even more original content to pad out their library, and before you know it, they’ll meet their ultimate goal.

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