Netflix to Debut Unscripted Shows in 2017 for First Time; Starts Video Preview
Netflix for 2017 will debut about 20 “unscripted shows” for the first time, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told a UBS investor conference. They will include “one of our more high-profile shows” in Ultimate Beastmaster, a global competition series that’s…
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executive-produced by Sylvester Stallone and will feature athletes and announcers from six countries, he said Monday. When the show appears in Mexico, "it will be with Mexican announcers and Mexican contestants, and in the U.S. it will be purely American product,” Sarandos said. Netflix sees unscripted TV as “a very interesting business,” Sarandos said. “The content itself appears to be largely interchangeable, meaning that if you want to watch a show about hoarding, there’s three different shows about hoarding that you can watch, and people watch it with seemingly equal passion when you swap them out.” Sarandos doesn’t see his company stepping into live sports anytime soon, he said. To the extent the “liveness is the selling point” of live sports, Netflix is “not a great solution,” he said. Broadcasting and cable are “great for the live sports,” he said. Tuesday, Netflix announced a video preview feature to keep subscribers there while searching for content. The preview service shows content in real time to help subscribers “decide whether to hit play,” said Stephen Garcia, director-product innovation for TV, and Chris Jaffe, vice president-product innovation, in a blog post. A new interface that will roll out globally over the next few weeks will be available on Netflix-enabled devices, including “the majority of game consoles and Roku devices,” they said. A company spokeswoman emailed us that initial products to support view previews are the Sony PS3, PS4, Xbox One and S and Roku 2, 3 and 4 streaming media players. Smart TVs and the Xbox 360 will be updated in coming months. The phased global rollout was used to ensure smooth deployment, the spokeswoman said. Video previews aren’t teasers or conventional trailers, said the blog post, but are “specially designed video synopses” that help subscribers choose content by “quickly highlighting the story, characters and tone of a title.” Previews vary in length and can be as long as a “couple of minutes,” said the representative.