To Diversify, Netflix Looks to Sell Merchandise Based on Original Content

Netflix wants to enter the consumer product business, including making toys based off its original content.

To accomplish this, the company is seeking an executive to forge partnerships with retailers and oversee licensing to comics and toys related to its programming, which is increasingly being produced in-house.

Netflix has had no trouble growing users and building its content library, but revenue diversification is seldom a bad thing, and merchandise will double as a marketing platform if people are buying and wearing things based on content that only appears on the streaming service.

“We are pursuing consumer products and associated promotion because we believe it will drive meaningful show awareness with more tangible, curated ways to interact with our most popular content,” Netflix says. “We want licensed merchandise to help promote our titles so they become part of the zeitgeist for longer periods of time.”

If Netflix goes full Disney, we may even see a Netflix theme park in the future. That’s a real moonshot, sure, but how cool would a House of Cards house of mirrors be? Okay—maybe not. Let’s start with Voltron toys.

Netflix Plans to Release More Original Content This Year Than Ever Before