Netflix is doubling down on providing more content this year. According to the streaming giant’s CFO Spencer Neumann, Netflix expects to spend US$18 billion 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.” Regarding Netflix as a global entertainment company, he said, “I think we are still just getting started.” The US$18 billion cash content spending would be an 11% increase from last year’s US$16.2 billion.
Neumann also discussed the anticipated revenue from the spending and revealed 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, an accelerating growth from 2023. With 700 million people watching Netflix content worldwide, the streaming giant is in about 40% of connected TV households 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 the biggest opportunity to grow and spend…We want to stay in growth mode versus maintenance mode as long as possible.” The platform’s goals remain “more and more entertainment value per dollar” while focusing on the overall experience “because the competition is improving.”
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.”
Netflix raised its 2025 outlook for revenue to be between US$43.5 billion and US$44.5 billion, US$500 million from previous guidance. In January 2025, Netflix announced price hikes across all plans in the U.S. and other markets.
