Netflix is raising $1.6B in debt as its content costs balloon

Netflix today said it was raising a very large lump of debt for the typical laundry list of uses that you’ll find in a filing with the SEC — though, the timing comes as its content costs may hit as much as $8 billion next year.

The announcement comes off a strong earnings report last week, where Netflix once again beat expectations for its subscriber growth. The company also said it expects to spend between $7 billion and $8 billion on original content in 2018, up from around $6 billion on original content this year. To be sure, original content — and racking up those Emmy awards — is critical to Netflix’s future as it looks to convert those high-quality shows (and high Metacritic scores) into new subscribers.

Netflix said it’s expecting to raise $1.6 billion in debt, though the announcement was pretty short and didn’t have a ton of detail. Here’s the boilerplate text in the filing:

The interest rate, redemption provisions, maturity date and other terms of the Notes will be determined by negotiations between Netflix and the initial purchasers.

Netflix intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include content acquisitions, production and development, capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.

Original content is also going to be increasingly critical as it grows internationally, where it’s acquiring the majority of its new subscribers. Netflix said it would raise its prices earlier this year, and that may temper some expectations for domestic growth. The company’s future may rest on making sure that original content is strong, and also expanding into internationally-oriented original content like its original show 3%. (That show is quite good, by the way, and does a good job of demonstrating that internationally-focused content could perform well domestically as well.)

Netflix’s stock has been on an insane run in the past year, where it’s jumped more than 56% after a slight dip this morning following the announcement:

You can check out our full report on Netflix’s earnings here.

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