Tuesday, July 23, 2013

(23-07-2013) Netflix plans a slew of more original content, including documentaries and stand-up comedy TechSc1ence


Netflix plans a slew of more original content, including documentaries and stand-up comedy Jul 22nd 2013, 20:59

By Jake Smith | Pocket-lint – 

Netflix announced during its second quarter earnings call that it won't be slowing down with original content. The House of Cards and Arrested Development host has plans for documentaries and stand-up comedy specials. 

"Beyond series, we will be expanding our Originals initiative to include broadly appealing feature documentaries and stand-up comedy specials," the company wrote to investors. "Netflix has become a big destination for fans of these much loved and often under-distributed genres."

The news for new content comes after Netflix was nominated for 14 Emmys last week, with House of Cards earning nine nominations including Outstanding Drama, Arrested Development garnering three, and Hemlock Grove two. "We'll continue to build on our initial success with Originals as we gain confidence in our ability to use our judgment and data to find projects that our members will enjoy," Netflix added.

In June, comedian John Hodgman (of Bill Gates lookalike fame) released his standup special, Ragnarok, exclusively through Netflix. Past comedy and documentaries, Netflix has made it clear it wants to stream over 300 hours of original animated content, having signed an exclusive deal with popular studio DreamWorks in June.

As for second quarter earnings, which were released on Monday, Netflix said it added 630,000 domestic subscribers, compared to 528,000 in the year ago quarter; 610,000 international subscribers were also addedRevenues for the streaming service were $1.07 billion, compared to $889 million a year earlier. Even with all of that growth, Netflix's subscriber numbers missed what analysts were expecting, causing the stock to fluctuate. Netflix now sits at 30 million domestic members and 8 million international members.

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