The United States might be its base of operations and most prolific producer of original film and television content, but Netflix has gradually evolved into a global enterprise where projects from countless countries around the world have become global smash hits.
The United Kingdom has played a huge part in that by backing a number of productions covering feature-length movies, miniseries, recurring TV shows, documentaries, comedy, drama, thrillers, and much more, leading the company’s co-CEO to praise local creatives for their efforts and success.
Of course, Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer has been Netflix’s most talked-about release of 2024 so far and is well on its way to becoming one of the platform’s most-watched episodic exclusives ever, but that’s just one of many British titles to have taken on a new lease of life worldwide.
Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen spent weeks at number one on the viewership charts, while The Crown has been one of Netflix’s biggest shows since its inception, and that’s without mentioning Harlan Coben adaptation Fool Me Once, groundbreaking comedies like Heartstopper and Sex Education, rom-com One Day, as well as the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of crime story Top Boy.
Per Deadline, Peters reiterated the streaming service’s commitment to funding UK-based content, which has been a fixture of the outfit’s production pipeline it first went global in 2016. “We’ve continued to invest heavily in our slate,” he said. “It’s why we continue to invest, continue to grow, even as competitors are going back.”
Whereas his fellow executive Ted Sarandos very recently credited Netflix’s algorithm for Baby Reindeer conquering the streaming world, Peters wasn’t wholeheartedly in agreement when speaking at the Deloitte and Enders Analysis Media & Telecoms 2024 and Beyond Conference, admitting how “we can’t manufacture a hit.”
Furthering that opinion, he referenced Sex Education by explaining that “no algorithm could have told you – or told us – that a series set in Wales from a first-time showrunner featuring a therapist’s son giving sex education lessons to his schoolmates would be a hit.”
Sarandos may beg to differ given his own comments on much the same thing, but Netflix reaffirming its desire to continue mining the creative arts in the UK is an encouraging development for the industry, and the evidence is right there in the numbers, acclaim, and awards season tallies that Britain has been and will continue to be one of Netflix’s strongest and most reliable territories.
