If people are watching their content, they can rely less on licensed content and drive those costs down. It's a similar value prop to any vertical integration.

If you mostly use Netflix to watch licensed content, you're more likely to cancel when all the licensed content is removed from the catalog.

If they successfully steer you towards Netflix produced content, you're less sensitive to what happens to the licensed content.

The story I heard about most Netflix content going for very long is that after two seasons a show's cast unionizes and they didn't want to pay up and they'd rather cancel shows, which seems awful penny-wise pound foolish of them.

> which seems awful penny-wise pound foolish of them.

On one of the podcasts that I listen to, which has given me many great recommends, one of the hosts has given up watching content until it hits three or four seasons because of exactly this.

>I expect they pay a flat fee to license content

I wouldn't tbh, though I'll admit I'm speculating solely on public information. During the 2023 strikes, SAG-AFTRA and the WGA negotiated additional residuals based upon whether 20% of the streaming services subscriber base viewed the content within 90 days of release.[1] So, streaming platforms are evidently willing to share subscriber viewership data with 3rd parties if it's a contractual requirement.

I would be surprised if content licensors haven't negotiated an as good or better deal for themselves.

[1] https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-aftra-streaming-bonus-...