Netflix revealed plans to boost its 2025 original programming expenditure to $18 billion, a more than 10 percent increase over 2024, which could place pressure on other streaming services. Additionally, the company notes that this spending plan does not represent its cap by any means. In the wake of this news, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos joined Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to unveil a plan to spend $1 billion producing content over the next four years south of the border. The company will also invest $2 million upgrading Mexico City’s Churubusco Studios, its new home base there.

Putting things in context, Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann said “‘We’re not anywhere near a ceiling” with respect to content spending,” Variety reported of the finance exec’s remarks last week at the 2025 Morgan Stanley Tech, Media & Telecom Conference, adding “I think we are still just getting started.”

Neumann said the company’s budget allocations are “a little art and a little science,” writes Variety. “It starts with anticipated revenue … then Netflix looks at content spending in the context of achieving margin targets.”

Forbes points out that Netflix’s spending hike “likely puts more pressure on streaming competitors such as Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and Comcast to keep up, even as they have struggled to make their big investments in subscription streaming services pencil out.”

Wired reports that Sarandos said the goal of the Mexico spending “is to strengthen the national film industry.” The company intends to fund projects “like Alfonso Cuarón’s film ‘Roma,’ which was made in Mexico and went on to international acclaim.”

“Netflix ended 2024 with 301.6 million paid members globally, accelerating its growth from 2023,” Variety reports, translating that to more than 700 million people watching Netflix content, according to Neumann, who estimated Netflix is in “about 40 percent of connected TV households around the world and has captured 6 percent of its addressable market.” That is “less than 10 percent of total TV viewing” globally.

“We’re still small on every key measure,” the CFO said, according to Variety.