Netflix Announces It Will Spend $18 Billion USD on Content This Year
“We are still just getting started.”
Netflix is doubling down on providing more content this year. According to the streaming giant’s CFO Spencer Neumann, Netflix is expecting to spend $18 billion USD in cash on content for 2025.
Heading towards greater expansion, Neumann spoke at the 2025 Morgan Stanley Tech, Media & Telecom Conference telling the audience, “We’re not anywhere near a ceiling.” In regards to Netflix as a global entertainment company, he said, “I think we are still just getting started.” The $18 billion USD cash content spending would be an 11% increase from last year’s $16.2 billion USD. Neumann also spoke of the anticipated revenue from the spending and reveals that Netflix has “pretty good predictability about [it]” as the spending is seen as a way of achieving margin targets.
At the end of 2024, Netflix had 301.6 million paid members globally, with an accelerating growth from 2023. With 700 million people watching Netflix content across the world, the streaming giant is in about 40% of connected TV households around the world and has captured 6% of its addressable market. In the U.S. and other countries, Netflix still represents less than 10% of total TV viewing. Neumann said, “We see the opportunity to grow everywhere. It’s more about, where is the biggest opportunity to grow and spend…We want to stay in growth mode versus maintenance mode as long as possible.” The platforms goals remain “more and more entertainment value per dollar,” while also focusing on the overall experience “because the competition is improving as well.” With the help of Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria, the company agrees it has to “start with big, local impact” with ““authentic storytelling” and once “those stories are great they can occasionally travel.”
For 2025, Netflix raised its 2025 outlook for revenue to be between $43.5 billion USD and $44.5 billion USD, $500 million USD from previous guidance. In January 2025, Netflix announced price hikes in the U.S. and other markets across all plans.
