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Gadget goes to Hollywood
Gadget visited the Netflix studios last week. In the first of a series, ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK talks to CEO Reed Hastings.
South Africa saw its first homegrown Netflix Original, a quasi-superhero series called Shadow, debut this month, following closely on the heels of Nigeria’s first Original, a comedy series about business succession, called Lionheart.
At this stage, says Hastings, there is no clear indication of what kind of content from this continent would work on Netflix, or how the company chooses its new shows.
“I would say it’s the content buyers taking guesses. If they’re right, we will do more content like that. Our members today watch everything; it’s not very different from country to country. We have a global service and then we’re adding some local content. We’ve got an economic incentive to do local content, because that helps us grow.
“We’re trying to figure out what shows serve our members best, and we’re doing that in Japan, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt and Jordan. We’re trying to curate great content from around the world.”
In the next five years, says Hastings, Netflix can be expected to have more original content, and far more of this will be local.
“We will be more global than we are, less US-centric, we will have significant productions in many countries of the world, and a lot more sharing of the world’s best content.”
Most significantly, says Hastings, we can can expect more Netflix in Africa, and more Africa in Netflix.
- Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
- This story first appeared in the Sunday Times, Business Times
