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
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The Approach

Scott Jellen is an independent researcher working at the intersection of protocol design, rights modeling, and interoperability. He is the creator of the Universal Sports Graph (USG), a standards-grade framework for sports rights and access, spanning RFC-style specifications and a versioned registry. His ongoing work includes whitepapers, briefs, and standards-oriented models that clarify incentives and modernize institutional systems.

© 2025 Scott Jellen. All rights reserved.