Ryan Broderick’s piece this week frames Netflix’s catalog strategy as deliberate shovelware production, and a Bloomberg report confirms it: Beef’s viewership dropped from roughly 30 million views to 10 million between seasons. Across big titles, the range runs from 30% to over 70%. Netflix describes this as audience behavior. The structure of their contracts explains it more directly.
Cast and showrunner contracts carry built-in raises that spike around the third season, and because Netflix owns its shows outright with no syndication windfall to recoup them, those rising costs never get paid back. Launching a new show resets the acquisition hook, surfaces fresh content for non-subscribers, and avoids the renewal premium.
The platform’s current biggest title is the 13th Harlan Coben adaptation, I Will Find You, a limited series that premiered June 18. Coben adaptations fit the model precisely: cheap to develop, internationally distributable, finite by design. No second-season audience collapse if there is no second season.