Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:
The cash influx is pretty obvious, as these services have a subscription fee . Both services are releasing original movies and shows which are exclusively available in their platform. But what's the purpose? If Netflix has no original content, they have to pay for licensing for everything they have on display. But if they own the product (= Netflix originals), then they don't need to pay a licensing fee to themselves. This is nothing more than cutting out the middle man. Isn't it an investment they make for the shows? It's indeed an investment, with the promise of paying dividends in the long term. A simpler example would be to buy a bread machine instead of going to the bakery every day....
Full answer by Flater: https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/87665 (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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