Netflix Plans Choose-Your-Own TV Adventures for Grown-Up Viewers

(Bloomberg) -- Netflix Inc. will produce a choose-your-own adventure show for adults, adding another genre of programming to a service that offers movies, scripted dramas, documentaries, stand-up comedy and reality TV.

The response to the Netflix kids shows “Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale” and “Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile,” both of which enabled viewers to pick how the stories evolved, convinced Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos that it was worth experimenting with a similar series for adults.

Viewers of the adult program will be able to pick which storyline to follow, and go back to watch the same show again with a different result. Interactive TV shows have been around for years, but have yet to catch on with a large audience.

Interest from Netflix, owner of the largest paid online TV network in the world, could change that. The company has undermined the traditional TV business with a streaming service that offers thousands of titles on demand, and plans to spend between $7 billion and $8 billion on programming in 2018.

Netflix also will release 30 local-language scripted series next year and 80 movies, Sarandos said during an investor conference. The company plans to produce 60 kids’ shows and a handful of animated movies in the near future.

Sarandos has prioritized original series that customers can’t get anywhere else because they endear customers to Netflix.

“A lot of the conventional wisdom that goes into TV programming turns out to be wrong,” Sarandos said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at lshaw31@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Bruce Rule, Jessica Brice

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