Back when Netflix released its quarterly earnings report last month, the media made a big deal about Netflix saying it was going to offer original documentaries and stand-up comedy specials. The truth is, they had already started doing so. John Hodgman’s Ragnarok, for example, debuted on Netflix about a month earlier.
CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said in a letter to investors, “Beyond series, we will be expanding our Originals initiative to include broadly appealing feature documentaries and stand-up comedy specials. Netflix has become a big destination for fans of these much loved and often under-distributed genres.”
Though many news outlets showed great enthusiasm that Netflix would be putting out this kind of content, few have acknowledged the fact that Netflix has actually been putting it out. Hardly a peep was made, for example, when Netflix debuted a stand-up special from Rob Schneider.
ANNOUNCING HERE ON TWITTER: MY STAND-UP COMEDY SPECIAL WILL PREMIERE AUGUST 1st ON NETFLIX!!! CHECK IT OUT!
— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) July 26, 2013
More recently still, Netflix debuted another pair of stand-up specials from comedians Doug Stanhope and Mike Birbiglia, titled Beer Hall Putsch and My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend respectively. We mentioned their releases here, but again, hardly a word about them in general.
My new special BEER HALL PUTSCH now available exclusively on @netflix
— Doug Stanhope (@DougStanhope) August 24, 2013
My new comedy special "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" is on @netflix, here's the link! http://t.co/CbiB1IvAQs
— Mike Birbiglia (@birbigs) August 24, 2013
Netflix isn’t cranking out the marketing for this stuff the way it has been for its original series, so people presumably just aren’t realizing that Netflix is putting out this content. They may see it show up on Netflix, and not even realize it’s exclusive.
Rest assured, Netflix is putting out more exclusive content than you thought.
Image: Netflix
