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takyon writes:

Netflix's foray into original content is paying off:

[Rather] than pay money out to studios for the right to show existing content, it instead ploughed its cash into shows such as Stranger Things, The Crown, Luke Cage and the remake of Gilmore Girls. In 2016, those "Netflix Originals" - already a term you could argue has become synonymous with quality - came thick and fast. The firm said it produced 600 hours of original programming last year - and intends to raise that to about 1,000 hours in 2017. Its budget to achieve that is $6bn - a billion more than last year.

On Wednesday we learned the company has been rewarded handsomely for putting its eggs in the original content basket. After hours trading on Wednesday saw the company's stock rise by as much as 9% on the news it had added 7.05 million new subscribers in the last three months of 2016. That's far greater than the 5.2 million they had anticipated, and left them ending the year with 93.8 million subscribers in total - and an expectation of breaking the symbolic 100 million mark by the end of March. In all, 2016 saw Netflix take in $8.83bn in revenue - with a profit of $186.7m.

Also at USA Today, TechCrunch, and Reuters.

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