Netflix has become a household name in modern-day America. Similar to the way the DVD and VHS used to be, it has become the way everybody watches their movies and shows today. However, in recent years, Netflix has been growing into a new industry, producing a majority of its original content, including several critically acclaimed TV shows and movies. This is not news to anyone, as shows like “Stranger Things” and “Master of None” are as well-known as the platform they are watched on. But anyone who has Netflix can attest that, once it started making its own shows, it made a lot of them, and not all necessarily to its benefit.

Think back and try to remember “War Machine,” the Brad Pitt (“Deadpool 2”) movie Netflix made about the war on terror. If you do not remember it, that is not surprising. The moment it dropped, it sank, straight to the bottom of Netflix’s extensive library, and there it rests to this day, as has happened with many of other Netflix’s originals.

Now it appears as though Netflix is cleaning house; unsurprisingly, “House of Cards” will end in 2018, but with it is going “Love,” “Lady Dynamite,” “Disjointed,” “Everything Sucks!,” “Seven Seconds,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “American Vandal,” “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage.” All of these except “House of Cards” and “Disjointed” were without scandal, and all except “Disjointed” had landed between 5 and 8.5 out of 10 with critic and audience ratings.

So, why cancel these shows? In an interview for The Economist, when discussing Netflix’s competition with HBO and how HBO is spending $10 million on every episode of Game of Thrones, the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hasting asked  “What does $20 million-an-hour television look like?” The implication of this is that Netflix is aiming at the new “Game of Thrones”-shaped hole about to appear in the streaming media of today when that show finally comes to a close.

Shows like “Stranger Things” have shown what they can do with $8 million per episode and a good idea. Imagine what they might do with more than double that. Imagine something like “The Last Kingdom” or “Marco Polo,” but with enough funding and a clear concise vision and story to make it last for almost the same amount of time that “Game of Thrones” did, if not more.  One thing is for certain: there is a definite demand for expensive, one-hour dramatic episodic storytelling, and with the market swinging farther away from satellite and cable TV and closer to subscription services, this move toward something big by Netflix makes perfect sense.

This market shift has already started, but now, every cable company and their mother wants a piece of it. Netflix may be worried that it will become just another app, so to make sure that does not happen, it is looking to make a big splash. To do that, it needs a massive budget, bigger than anything they have produced so far. So, do not be surprised if even more Netflix originals go away in 2019 because it seems like it is getting ready to go all-in on one thing, which unfortunately may come with a price increase as well.

Image from Netflix via YouTube