Netflix Has Only Cancelled 7% of Their Original Shows, is That a Bad Thing?

While the Netflix library might be shrinking in size, the overall success of their original content is a big win.

During this week’s earnings call, content boss Ted Sarandos noted that Netflix has only cancelled 7% of their content library, showing once again that perhaps Netflix isn’t taking enough risks in their content selection. If I had to guess, they stare at a show like ‘Game of Thrones‘ and salivate at how successful HBO has been over the past few years, betting huge on one of the most expensive first seasons of television ever.

While Netflix has ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Orange is the New Black,’ ‘Narcos,’ and more, they are under immense pressure to keep the streak alive, and especially beat HBO and other blossoming competition from swiping the next big thing on television right from underneath them.

Our sources at Netflix say there has been a little internal turmoil around the Netflix offices following CEO Reed Hastings’ comments that Netflix isn’t taking enough risks on their content. This was taken as a strong signal that the content team needs to find that 10x giant, that will make it necessary to have a Netflix subscription in order to avoid being left out of water cooler discussion, something HBO has in GoT and ‘Westworld.’

Interestingly, our sources have also said there’s a bit of a fissure here in overall strategy compared to Hastings’ desires, stating that there is a big push to find “niche content” that can help Netflix grow their audiences among specific demographics and regions. An example given being, if Netflix wants to grow their subscriber base in a country like Poland, find original shows and movies that will do well in that specific area. This isn’t necessarily contradictory to what Netflix hopes to achieve, but does send the company’s content goals in two different directions. HBO has seen some limited success from niche shows, but there’s no doubt their subscribers come for the blockbusters.