Licensing shows for global distribution is turning out to be harder than Netflix thought, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told the UBS Media Conference in New York on Monday.

In the past year, Netflix expanded into Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan.

“There has never been a global buyer,” Sarandos said, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Sarandos noted that the studios’ current international set ups makes it difficult to do pan-global deals with them.

“[The] regional sales staff don’t want their jobs marginalized. It’s a pretty big structural change that all of our studio and network partners are trying to manage,” he said.

That may be true, but it’s also true that studios are trying to leverage their content to its best advantage, and that means shopping shows territory by territory to find the buyer willing to offer the best price and terms. Selling a piece of content to Netflix on a global basis means that competing buyers don’t have a chance to bid up its price.

Sarandos says Netflix isn’t seeking to buy globally to use Netflix’s scale to obtain license-fee discounts, but instead is using its scale to lock down exclusive rights for shows across the globe.

“We’re alone in this space of buying global rights,” he said.

That said, studios are becoming increasingly wary of selling their content to Netflix without exploring all their options.

Sarandos also claimed that Netflix’ most popular shows do as well as hits on cable, saying that “our shows are mont the most-viewed shows on television.” The service still refuses to release viewing metrics that would back up Sarandos’ claims.

Netflix continues to invest heavily in original programming while moving away from acquired series, with 31 new scripted shows on the docket for 2016, up from 16 this year. The service also has 10 feature films in the queue as well as 30 kids’ shows, 12 documentaries and 10 stand-up comedy specials.

Finally, Sarandos ruled out any Netflix interest in getting into the live-sports game, but casually mentioned that it might be interesting for Netflix to start its own sports league, “but that’s not what we’re chasing.”

Brief Take: The more Netflix runs into licensing difficulties from the studios, the more it will turn to original content.

Read more at Broadcasting & Cable, The Hollywood Reporter

[Image courtesy of Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Netflix/AP Images via The Hollywood Reporter]

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