Netflix plotting to become new CW for Gen Z
Company invests in, promotes shows for young adults, teens
On a chilly February afternoon in Huntington Beach, California, throngs of young fans of the popular Netflix show “Outer Banks” gathered for a strange beast of an event — equal parts high school beach party, trendy music festival and promotional meet-and-greet with the series stars.
Attendees carried their Diet Cokes and branded coconuts across the venue, passing by a giant inflatable chicken and a performance stage where artists including indie-rockers alt-J and pop-soul crooner Khalid were set to perform.
Ella Coleman, 16, was one of the thousands of guests at the “Poguelandia” fest, a reference to the Pogues, the show’s working-class crew of protagonists. Coleman came for the chance to meet the cast of her favorite show, which follows a group of teens hunting for treasure along the eponymous North Carolina coastline.
“(What) I like about the show is the action, and how it’s a mystery, and each time there’s something happening,” she said before taking off to join a crowd of teens chasing after cast members Drew Starkey and Austin North.
In many ways, Coleman is an ideal Netflix customer — though like many teens, she watches on her parents’ account.
Netflix is investing in and promoting programming about young adults and teens as it fights to remain dominant in the fiercely competitive streaming business. Bulking up in the YA (young adult) category comes at a time
when streamers are under pressure to become more profitable, increase their subscriber base and reduce churn.
With hits such as “Wednesday” and “Ginny & Georgia,” Netflix is catering to a demographic that in another era might have been glued to the WB network or the CW during their “Dawson’s Creek” and “Smallville” heydays — CW for a generation of people who’ve never paid for cable.
Netflix’s slate includes new youth-oriented programs such as “XO, Kitty,” a “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” spinoff; “One Piece,” a manga-based pirate adventure; and “My Life With the Walter Boys,” based on the Ali Novak book of the same name. New YA films include
“True Spirit,” about a reallife sailor; and “Damsel,” starring Millie Bobby Brown.
These projects join
Netflix’s existing teen, tween and 20-something content such as “Shadow and Bone,” “Heartstopper,” “Never Have I Ever” and “The Kissing Booth” trilogy.
The get-them-whilethey’re-young strategy is not without risks and challenges. Younger consumers have limited budgets and are tech-savvy enough to drop a service quickly — 74% of them said they plan to quit a streaming service this year and sign up for another one, according to data firm Samba TV. They’re also vocal on social media, a trait that can drive viewership when the chatter is positive and cause headaches when it isn’t.
But gaining customers’ loyalty during early adulthood could be invaluable in the long run, said Tom Nunan, a former studio and TV network executive. “The greater goal, of course, is just to keep those eyeballs train(ed) to Netflix
as those people watching Netflix go from being young adults or teenagers into adulthood.”
Netflix understands how CW-type programming can be a major draw. CW series such as “All-American” and “Riverdale” drew modest ratings on the broadcast network, but became full-blown hits once they were made available on Netflix. Five of the top six English-language shows on Netflix by viewing time are either YA or YA-adjacent. Viewers watched “Stranger Things 4” for more than 1.35 billion hours in its first 28 days. “Wednesday” ranked second at roughly 1.2 billion hours.
Executives credit this success to the universal themes of growing up, when everything, including first kisses, high school dances and sports competitions, feels life-and-death.
“It’s something that’s so relatable, whether you’re a young adult looking to be entertained by an experience you may be going through, or it’s from an adult point of view that is nostalgic or reflective and can be quite reminiscent of your coming-ofage experience,” said Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s vice president of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada. “That level of popularity expands beyond just the YA demographic, it’s really across our membership.”
Another benefit: Young adults have long been desirable for advertisers, an important factor as Netflix grows its cheaper tier that includes commercials.
There’s also an opening in the marketplace. The CW is now majority owned by Nexstar Media Group, a business of local TV stations that wants CW programming to deliver audiences that will stick around for its olderskewing local newscast.
Rival streaming services have also gone after young adult audiences. HBO Max rebooted “Gossip Girl” and aired “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” while HBO has won Emmys for the controversial “Euphoria.” Other such series include Amazon Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and Hulu and Disney+’s “Love, Victor.”
Some of Netflix’s YA shows have a little edge — like “Sex Education” — but executives said one of their sweet spots is having shows that families can watch together. Such shows could avoid much of the dark and sexually explicit content that parents find alienating about series such as “Euphoria.”
“Outer Banks” was a particularly unexpected success. When the series premiered in April 2020, its cast was little-known. The idea for the show came from a photograph published in the Wall
Street Journal of a darkened mansion in the Outer Banks during a power outage.
From those humble beginnings, the show has become popular enough to merit its own YA-palooza. At the recent Poguelandia, Netflix previewed the third season of “Outer Banks” and announced that it had ordered a fourth.
“I had movies and TV shows and books and music like this when I was a teenager,” said actor Starkey, 29, pointing to franchises such as “The Lord of the Rings.” “When you see characters that represent yourself on screen, I think it makes you feel like you have a connection to the world around you.”
The event closed with a performance from Khalid, 25, with hits including “Young Dumb & Broke” and “8TEEN.” The latter’s chorus, “I’m 18, and I still live with my parents,” might as well have been “I’m 18, and I still use my parents’ Netflix account.”