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Netflix “$20bn in debt”

August 1, 2017

Netflix is more than $20 billion (€16.9bn) in the red and ‘bleeding cash’ according to a report in The LA Times.

The streaming giant has more than doubled its spending this year and is expected to invest more than $6 billion on its slate of programming in 2017.

Its negative free cash-flow of $258 million for the same quarter last year, and $423 million for the quarter ending March 30th, increased to a company-record negative $608 million for the quarter ending June 30th.  The company has accumulated a $20.54 billion debt in its effort to create and produce more original content, such as big budget offerings Stranger Things, Marvel’s The Defenders and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Netflix is said to be well aware of the debt and expects “to be free-cash-flow negative for many years”.

Investors are said to be relaxed about the large debt since Netflix continues to build on subscribers; currently 104 million subscribers use the streaming service.

Netflix stated last year that it aims to offer 50 per cent original content in 2018.

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