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Movies & TV

01st Jun 2017

Netflix CEO thinks the site needs to be cancelling more shows

A rather strange statement to make.

JOE

Eh, what?

Netflix’s rapid rise from a mail order DVD rental service in 1997 to become the dominant global video streaming service has taken the world by storm and now they have nearly 100 million people on their books.

In the last twenty years, the site has moved from renting out DVD’s (which were adding up to 1 million every day) to adding online offerings which made Netflix the world’s most favoured streaming service.

They only started making their own original programmes in 2012 and this year put aside €530 billion ($6 billion) to use on new productions in 2017.

Netflix has found their original programmes to be extremely successful with the hard-hitting 13 Reasons Why renewed for a second series.

Orange Is The New Black is due to hit our screens sometime in June and until then we have the new series of House of Cards to feast on.

With all those original, successful shows in his armour, you would think that Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, would be quite delighted with himself.

Well, you’d be wrong. Speaking to CNBC, Hastings said:

“Our hit ratio is way too high right now. So, we’ve cancelled very few shows” he told the American television station.

“I’m always pushing the content team. We have to take more risk, you have to try more crazy things. Because we should have a higher cancel rate overall.”

Hastings wants the streaming site to take more risks and believes that by doing so, they can produce more creative and successful shows like 13 Reasons Why.

“You get some winners that are just unbelievable winners, like 13 Reasons Why. It surprised us. It’s a great show, but we didn’t realise just how it would catch on.”

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