Netflix intends to develop more international series
Already a bastion of original content, Netflix announced this week it plans to continue to develop more series designed for a global audience. At the European Film Market’s Drama Series Days event in Berlin Germany, Variety reported that the streaming giant announced its plans to continue its appeal for more diverse audiences worldwide.
“We’re definitely looking to foster voices that haven’t had an opportunity before,” said Netflix’s VP of international originals for Europe, Turkey and Africa, Kelly Luegenbiehl. “In particular, we have a real passion around diverse voices, female storytellers, things that maybe you have to work a little bit harder to find sometimes. We feel like by empowering those voices, that’s where we are getting the stories that feel really unique and differentiated.”
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The proclamation comes as Netflix has ordered a trio of German-language series, including The Wave, which was announced last year. Elsewhere, a series aimed to give a new spin on The French Revolution is also in the works. Additionally, the streamer is doing more in assuring the rights to the shows it acquires elsewhere can be seen on-demand the world-over.
Some of this strategy could be stemming from the success they saw with this year’s Roma, their Spanish-language feature film which has swept this year’s awards season ahead of the Oscars later this month.
“As you can see from our recent subscriber numbers, we are continuing to grow internationally, and so I think we plan to scale our investment in local series to match our growth,” Luegenbiehl added. “For us, it is still very early days. There is a lot of momentum internally at Netflix around building out our international series.”