Cover for The Shadow Subscription

The Shadow Subscription

How Netflix Turns Non-Subscribers Into a Revenue Stream

A strategic whitepaper proposing how Netflix could monetize non-subscribers by acquiring and upgrading low-tier cable and FAST channels. The paper outlines a system for extracting subscriber-equivalent revenue from shadow viewers turning reruns into revenue and legacy infrastructure into a profitable, modern funnel.

Streaming StrategyMedia InfrastructurePlatform MonetizationAudience Funnels
Published: August 5, 2025
Updated: December 26, 2025
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The Approach

Scott Jellen is an independent researcher focused on protocol design, rights modeling, and interoperability across digital and public systems. His flagship work, the Universal Sports Graph (USG), defines a neutral infrastructure layer for representing sports rights through published RFCs and a versioned reference registry. Additional briefs and whitepapers explore how incentive clarity and structural design shape scalable institutions.

© 2026 Scott Jellen. Licensing varies by publication.