Netflix is planning to spend approximately $8 billion on programming next year, and anime is set to play a big role in the company’s plans.
Netflix has 30 different anime projects that are in varying stages of development, Bloomberg reported.
Netflix also said it will launch Rilakkuma and Kaoru globally in Spring 2019. The show will premiere as an original series with 13 episodes in more than 190 countries.
Netflix is also branching out into additional foreign content with its first Danish, Italian, German and Swedish series. According to Bloomberg, the company is making a substantial jump in its foreign content for 2018, whereas it has previously focused on U.S.-based content. It’s also ramping up production in different languages in an effort to attract more users from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, according to Bloomberg.
The $8 billion programming budget is an increase of about a third compared to what Netflix planned to spend in 2017, Bloomberg reported. Netflix also plans to spend over $1 billion on marketing.
Netflix added 5.3 million subscribers in the third quarter of 2017, almost 1 million more than analysts expected.
