Netflix’s International Content Spend Outpaces Domestic for the First Time; Prime Video Leads in Latin American Commissions

Streaming services are serious about building international audiences. Most streaming executives agree that the streaming market in the United States is almost fully mature, meaning there are simply not many domestic customers left who don’t have streaming services but may want them. Streamers like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are increasing their content spends in international markets to woo global customers, and new data from Ampere Analysis is quantifying just how much these platforms are investing in other territories.

• Ampere’s data shows that Netflix’s international content spend will be more than its domestic outlay for the first time in 2024.
• Amazon has become the leading commissioner of new shows in Latin America, with 23 announced in the second half of 2023 alone.
• Streaming providers can save money by producing shows internationally, and local audiences respond to content made in their markets.

The numbers from Ampere show that the world’s largest streaming service is following through on plans to keep growing internationally. In late 2022, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that his streamer had effectively reached maximum penetration in the United States, aside from viewers sharing the password of a paying customer, and that as a result Netflix would be shifting its focus to more internationally-produced shows and movies.

Ampere’s data indicates that in 2024, Netflix will spend $7.9 billion on titles produced outside North America. That will account for 51% of its total $15.4 billion content spend for the year, and it’s the first time in the streamer’s history it will spend more to create content outside the North American region than it does on domestically-produced series and films.

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But it’s not just Netflix that’s making more meaningful investments in content produced overseas. Ampere’s numbers show that Amazon’s Prime Video is now the leader in commissions for new streaming titles in Latin America, outpacing even TelevisaUnivision, which specializes in Spanish-language content. Prime Video announced 23 Latin American commissions in the second half of 2023, bucking a trend from most other U.S.-based streamers who are trying to trim their international content budgets.

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Why Are Netflix, Prime Video Shifting Content Spends to International Markets?

A report from 2023 predicted that the global streaming audience would grow by more than a billion by 2028, and given that a recent Forbes survey indicated that 95% of Americans now pay for more than one streaming service, it stands to reason that many of these subscribers will be from international territories.

Western Europe will be vastly important for streaming providers as a new base of customers going forward. Ampere data released in September of 2023 indicates that this region will have more streaming households than the U.S. by 2025, and the latest statistics from the data analysis firm indicates that around 35% of Netflix’s total global content spend in 2024 will go to Europe. Netflix clearly sees the potential to grow its customer totals in this area and is pursuing them eagerly.

In addition to the availability of new customers in international audiences, streaming providers usually have to pay less to produce shows and movies outside the U.S. than they do for domestic productions. For example, Netflix’s global sensation “Squid Game” cost less than $25 million to produce in its first season, vastly less than titles like “Stranger Things” or “The Umbrella Academy.”

The success of “Squid Game” also demonstrates that American audiences are willing to accept non-English titles, so streamers don’t have to worry as much about alienating customers who deliver a higher average revenue per user than those living in other global regions with content not in English. For audiences, this means that more shows and movies in which the primary language is not English could be headed to Netflix and Prime Video soon.

Other streaming providers like Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Paramount are pulling back on their international content spends, leaving Prime Video and Netflix virtually alone to play in the global sandbox. International audiences provide a tempting new subscriber base, but most streamers are still chasing profitability, and are focused on getting the most out of higher-earning American audiences before making riskier investments in global content that may not see the successful response streamers intend.

Netflix is still the only streaming service to show a regular and healthy profit year in and year out, and Prime Video’s parent company Amazon creates hundreds of billions in retail revenue every year. These streamers can afford to boost their international content investments, and new data from Ampere shows that they are doing just that.