The real reason Netflix is producing original content is short and simple: current copyright law make Netflix completely beholden to the big six media companies

The real reason Netflix is producing original content is short and simple: current copyright law make Netflix completely beholden to the big six media companies, and if these people, for whatever reason, feel they don't need/want/like Netflix anymore, Netflix will be over. It can only operate as an appendage of the major media corps. We caught a brief glimpse of this with the Qwikster debacle, where licensing costs imposed for streaming forced Netflix into a new model that was very poorly received, and ultimately had to be rolled back due to public panic. Netflix are beginning to chip away at that bondage by producing original content, and giving people a reason to use Netflix that can't be taken away arbitrarily by external forces. Netflix could be a great champion of copyright reform ... if that wouldn't cause all their content providers to immediately drop NF in retribution, that is.