'The Blacklist' and 'Marseille' Make Netflix A Nearly Unstoppable Force

With Amazon unveiling its latest slate of original pilots for viewers to vote on in the company’s latest round of potential series orders, one would imagine all of this week’s focus would fall on the retail giant. However, that’s not the case, and it has everything to do with Amazon’s biggest streaming rival, Netflix . The new-media juggernaut made three major moves this week, two of which are extremely headline worthy:

1) The company renewed its latest original series, the animated BoJack Horseman, for a second season four days after its premiere.

2) In a move to expand its international reach, the company put into production its first ever French original series, Marseille.

3) Setting a record for the most lucrative streaming video on demand deal ever, the company purchased the exclusive streaming rights to NBC’s highly rated series, The Blacklist, for $2 million an episode.

These three stories, especially in the rapid succession they’ve occurred, show off not just the power Netflix wields, but its commitment to the one thing that’ll keep it competitive: content diversity.

At face value, the BoJack renewal isn’t surprising when pay-cable services such as HBO do it all the time, but it is worth noting the series has not been as well received by critics as some others on the services’ original programming slate. We’ll never know for sure what the numbers for BoJack look like as Netflix has remained devoted to its initiative to never reveal viewership data, but it’s an interesting sign that regardless of reception, the network’s willing to give the series another shot, something that similarly received Hemlock Grove had to fight for after its first season premiere (the series debuted in April of 2013, but wasn’t renewed until June of the same year). It seems Netflix is out to prove its willingness to give all shows a chance to grow before writing them off which, in the end, will attract higher-profile content creators to its side of the court.

Regarding Marseille, the series fits right in with the currently untitled spainish-language soccer comedy that will debut in 2015. Clearly, there’s a push to make the streaming network not just a one-stop-shop for all the best content in North America, but the world. Little attention’s often given by American production companies to the untapped market that is international production. Companies like 20^th Century Fox Television and Warner Brothers Television are too focused on the American production slate to take notice of the potential in creating international content for international territories. But, by creating international friendly content, Netflix will make itself more valuable to companies that may want to use the service as their foreign distributor in the future. If Netflix rates higher than a given country’s highest rated network, which is more likely to land a lucrative international rights deal?

Finally, there’s the record setting deal for NBC’s The Blacklist, the streaming rights of which are actually controlled by Sony Pictures Television, the series producing studio. It was always known that as the only top 10 scripted 18-49 drama on television without an existing exclusivity deal, The Blacklist was always going to be a hot property among streaming outlets, especially when much of the series audience comes from record setting DVR viewership. The odds are good that the $2 million per episode price tag came after an extensive bidding war between the likes of Netflix, Amazon (who already has exclusive distribution to many Universal productions) and Hulu. In the end, the one that was going to walk away with The Blacklist rights was going to be the one with the deepest pockets, and in that war, Netflix continues to come out on top.

Netflix is making some very extensive moves heading into the upcoming television season. While some may view them as risky, the company’s tactics have operated on the side of fringe strategy for so long, that the only risky thing it could do at this point is play it safe. Of course there’s always a possibility of Netflix one day losing its grip on the streaming market, but that day is not going to come in the near future, not with the likes of these and 4 upcoming Marvel series secured under its belt.