Production Talent Bidding War Driving Content Cost Inflation, Kagan Says

Content costs are rising as streaming services seeking original content cause a bidding war for top production talent, Kagan emailed investors Tuesday. It said Netflix's general and administrative expenses in Q2 are up 55 percent year over year, and Amazon has similar G&A expense growth. The trend started in 2011 when Netflix partnered with director David Fincher on House of Cards. In recent weeks, Netflix has announced a deal with Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes; Amazon with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman; and Hulu hired away AMC's Joel Stillerman to be its chief content officer, Kagan noted.