(June 5): On a conference call last October, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos described the hip-hop drama “The Get Down” as a success, like the booming streaming service’s other popular shows.

Eight months and 11 episodes later, “The Get Down” is history, a flop after one season on the world’s largest paid video service. The sci-fi thriller “Sense8,” another of the company’s lavish productions, was scrapped after two seasons.

The back-to-back cancellations caught Hollywood by surprise. Netflix has defied convention by offering no inkling of how many people watch its shows and claiming just about everything is a hit. That’s vexed competitors worried about Netflix’s growing customer base and influence in Hollywood. The streaming company will spend more than US$6 billion ($8.28 billion) on programming this year, a good chunk of that on about 1,000 hours of original shows.

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