Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, has announced the desire of the company to produce more unique programming content that is not presently being served by other production companies.
Hastings appeared earlier today at the DealBook Conference with New York Times reporter, Andrew Ross Sorkin.
"We're hopeful that we'll over time make a great Bollywood show, make a great anime show," said Hastings. "It might not be that that Bollywood show is for [Showtime CEO] Matt Blank. It might be that it's more segmented, but again the internet [lets] you do that. I think that's the key in that enablement. But as Matt knows, making these shows is very challenging and I'm sure we'll have issues over time," added Hastings.
The Verge reported that Showtime's CEO, Matt Blank, asked Hastings how the production outfits will maintain a level of quality. Hastings answered the question by pointing out their company's experimental in the crime drama 'Narcos.'
"When I look at our shows, we just had one come out this summer, Narcos, and it's a very different kind of show," Hastings shared. "It's an American company, Netflix, contracts with the oldest movie company in the world - a French company [named] Gaumont - to make a production in Bogota, Columbia, featuring Brazilian actors and directed by a Brazilian - three quarters Spanish, one quarter English - and it's hugely popular in Germany."
Netflix's aggressiveness towards its original programming ambitions is very clear allocating $5 billion of spending for content next year.
"You go beyond the normal spectrum to get quality and you really stretch to the things that you can do," Hastings said. "On-demand and the internet really gives you that power. When you have incredible distribution, then you have to open the front end of the funnel to have incredible producers around the world."
According to the Verge, FX head John Landgraf said last August that, "too many television options could overwhelm us and risks creating a kind of indifference among viewers that could sink otherwise successful shows."
Hasting disagreed with Landgraf and said, "We have a lot of choice, but if you do great content, you'll find great viewers."