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# The Industrialisation Of Netflix
- URL: https://tvrev2beta2.ghost.io/the-industrialisation-of-netflix/
- Published: 2025-11-05T08:25:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-05T08:25:00.000Z
- Author: Kauser Kanji
- Tags: Marconi, Netflix, CTV in Europe, Kauser Kanji, #sqs, #Import 2026-09-03 21:39

Whenever Netflix’s latest financials are published, the topline data is always the stuff the press focuses on: revenue, content spend, subscriber numbers. Totally understandable, obviously: they tell a story about the health, performance and strategy of the company.

But what’s just as important – to me at least – is what Netflix spends on technology, marketing and general admin. What can we learn from *those* numbers both for how the streamer itself operates and for other OTT service-providers?

Some thoughts based on Netflix’s 2019-2024 published budgets.

**#1.** **The Industrialisation of Streaming**

In 2019 Netflix generated $20 billion in revenue and $1.9 billion in profit. By 2024, revenue had doubled to $39 billion but profit had *quadrupled* to $8.7 billion.

What this tells us, I think, is that Netflix is starting to behave like a well-run manufacturing business: predictable inputs, scalable processes, repeatable margins.

For years the company chased new markets. Now it’s optimising the machine - tuning pricing, advertising, and engagement loops rather than chasing the next 10 million subs.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/4b/184bce7f-90ef-4333-95df-ad6ebcbdad98/content/images/images-squarespace-cdn-com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/96df5c9d-4342-4dd9-a5eb-159bf956da0b/netflix-revenue-net-income-2019-24-format-original.png)

**#2\. Reduced Marketing Costs**

In 2019 Netflix spent 13% of its revenue on marketing - about $2.6 billion. By 2024 that ratio had almost halved to 7.5%, even though absolute spend barely changed.

That’s quite something. It means Netflix added nearly $19 billion in extra revenue without meaningfully increasing its marketing budget.

How? We know that Netflix prides itself on being a data-driven company. And the brand is, by now, totally ubiquitous (if not loved in quite the way it was in the days of *Netflix ‘n chill*). We can also infer that marketing is done via playbook – a honed, repeatable process. 

But the real trick, I suspect, is that Netflix has turned product into promotion. The interface *is* the marketing: algorithmic placement, automated trailers, endless testing. It’s all internal now. You open the app and the campaign is already happening.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/4b/184bce7f-90ef-4333-95df-ad6ebcbdad98/content/images/images-squarespace-cdn-com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/4b5432ea-4e25-481e-8e0a-e5eb37b049fc/netflix-revenue-marketing-spend-2019-24-format-original.png)

**#3\. Tech as IP, Not just Plumbing**

*Technology & Development* spend rose steadily from $1.5 billion in 2019 to $2.9 billion in 2024 - roughly 7-8% of revenue every year.

Some of this, we can attribute to content delivery: the more customers, the more they watch, the greater the streaming costs. 

But the consistency in sticking to a 7-8% spend is the point. Netflix treats technology as a value generator, not a cost centre. The recommendation system, encoding algorithms, localisation pipeline, and cloud infrastructure are all proprietary assets that drive margin.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/4b/184bce7f-90ef-4333-95df-ad6ebcbdad98/content/images/images-squarespace-cdn-com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/0201d820-942f-4c8a-b279-b48a5f07c41b/netflix-revenue-tech-spend-2019-24-format-original.png)

**#4.** **Admin Discipline and Operating Leverage**

General & Administrative costs - the lawyers, finance teams, offices - grew from $0.9 billion to $1.7 billion over six years. Sounds big, but revenue nearly doubled, so the share stayed flat around 4–5%.

That’s operating leverage in practice: fixed infrastructure supporting ever-larger output.

Netflix didn’t get there by cutting staff alone (it actually only cut about 5% of its workforce in 2022); it got there by building scalable systems. Once the finance, rights, and metadata frameworks are in place, every new market or title adds incremental, not exponential, admin work.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/4b/184bce7f-90ef-4333-95df-ad6ebcbdad98/content/images/images-squarespace-cdn-com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/ee4e072e-c7d0-4e0d-bee4-eca7adaeeb44/netflix-revenue-g-a-spend-2019-24-format-original.png)

**#5\. Overall Efficiency Gains**

Marketing, Tech & Dev, and G&A together fell from 25% of revenue in 2019 to under 20% in 2024, showing clear scaling efficiency.

That kind of shift doesn’t happen by accident. It means every extra dollar of revenue is now costing Netflix less to earn - the hallmark of a company that’s learned to compound its own advantages. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/4b/184bce7f-90ef-4333-95df-ad6ebcbdad98/content/images/images-squarespace-cdn-com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/ed59944e-3316-4afb-a42e-103043e8feaf/netflix-combined-spend-g-a-mktg-tech-2019-24-format-original.png)

**What This Means for Everyone Else**

So should ITV, Channel 4 or Disney aim for the same 7-8% tech spend or 7% marketing ratio? Not exactly. Netflix’s structure makes its cost base unique.

But they could (arguably *should*) pay attention to the direction of travel:

- Marketing efficiency improving every year
- Tech investment steady and strategic, not stop-start
- Admin scaling slower than revenue

Those are universal indicators of maturity.

*Thoughts?* [*DM me on LinkedIn*](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kauser-kanji-1448132/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io)*.*