Why does Netflix not care about having a catalog of finished shows?
- If statistics show that your show is already unpopuplar, that most people that start the show end up dropping it, why would you throw in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to to finish the show. Statisically most people who do find the show later on are going to drop the show before the end anywahys
- Having a bunch of content that sucks on the catalog doesn't hurt the service, in the same way that most of Spotify and YouTube having mostly crap does not hurt the service. As long as you continue to find value by having something to watch the other stuff does not matter.
- Their content spend budget is finite, so if they are wasting their money on finishing shows that bring low value, that prevents them from trying to make new shows that bring them high value, prevents them from making new deals with creators and from acquiring things.
See, this is the problem with Netflix. Unlike most of the other major service, they don't have a back catalogue of perennials to bolster their viewers through new content droughts. Remember when they were dropping 100 mill on
Friends per year??? That is the value of long running shows that may not manifest in the first few seasons but over time can morph into juggernauts. Actors in one show can become stellar in another and it back feeds their own stuff. Showrunners and writers can learn and improve. A first season "ho hum" can become a season 3-7 masterpiece.
But Netflix has very little to fall back on. Aborted shows, heavily serialized dramas that peter out, bland algorithm derived 4 quadrant appeasing (but
pleasing to none) tripe that no one goes back to, they are always falling forward and can NEVER stop. But compare them to the likes of HBO, with numerous fully realized quality shows across the board, covering many genres. THAT should have been the netflix model, not superficial popcorn shows that can only exist in the moment.
Why Netflix throws shit at and the wall and sees what sticks?
- People have different tastes in shows, some of you complain about otheer content being garbage but you forget that just like video games not everyone likes cinematic games like Uncharted and The Last of US, not everyone like online GaaS, not everyone likes those artsy fartsy story heavy indie games, those super hard 2d platformers or soulsbornes games. People like differnet things.
- Netflix wants to take more risks with greenlighting, they explicitly said a very long time ago, our cancelleration rate is lower than everybody elses and that they are going to ecnourage their people to take more risks when greenlighting. And they did.
Netflix needs an identity, or at least be more willing to produce stuff with a more limited audience appeal but with much higher engagement WITHIN that limited audience. Instead it feels like every show they make is 10% for me, 10% for someone the polar opposite, 10% off to the side, etc etc. Instead of being 95% MY JAM such that me and 5 million grognards like me stay subbed just for that content while ignoring the rest. I feel like amazon is much better in this regard, they only tripped up with Rings of Power in trying to paint with too broad a brush.