Netflix’s New Stock Buyback Is Bigger Than Its Entire 2026 Content Budget

BusinessMediaNetflix’s New Stock Buyback Is Bigger Than Its Entire 2026 Content BudgetByAndy Meek,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I report on media as well as its intersection with news and culture.Follow AuthorApr 26, 2026, 03:31pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.An aerial view of the Netflix logo displayed at Netflix studios, with the Hollywood sign in the distance.Getty ImagesNetflix, for years, spent whatever it took to win the streaming wars. Now, in a sign of just how much the streaming giant has matured, it’s gearing up to spend more on buying back its own stock than it will actually shell out this year on creating the TV shows and movies that keep its business humming along.The streamer has just authorized up to $25 billion in repurchases, a figure that eclipses its entire 2026 content budget of around $20 billion. And the timing here, coming after the company’s aborted $83 billion bid for part of Warner Bros. Discovery, is hard to ignore.Instead of betting on WBD — the shareholders of which on Thursday approved the company’s $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance — buying back its own stock means Netflix will instead be betting on itself.Netflix’s post-streaming wars playbookThe additional $25 billion in share repurchases authorized by Netflix’s board come on top of the company’s December 2024 share repurchase authorization, which still had about $6.8 billion remaining as of the end of March. Also worth noting: With no firm end date for the new or prior authorizations, Netflix has plenty of flexibility on timing here. Bigger picture, this is also quite a big signal of confidence for a company that once defined itself by outspending rivals on content.Consider: Netflix has already won the global scale game, its ad tier is becoming increasingly attractive to subscribers, and the days of needing to outspend ever...