Netflix Builds Original Programming Upon A “House Of Cards”

BY ALEX BARNARD

Over the past decade, Netflix has made amazing strides in the entertainment industry.  What originally began as a mail order rental service has led into one of the premiere experiments of online streaming content.  With the Netflix streaming service’s increasing popularity, it managed to make its fair share of enemies in the movie-streaming world.  Netflix recently lost its largest digital content provider, Starz, who filled the service with over 1,000 movies.  This led to a decrease in subscribers, and Netflix also saw a large decrease when it announced that the company would split in half, making the streaming and DVD sides of the business into two completely separate entities.  Although this split never actually occurred, a price increase was still brought into effect that further led to a decrease in paying customers.  In an attempt to regain popularity and keep subscribers, Netflix is now creating and distributing its own original programming.

Netflix’s original programming is distributed uniquely, and doesn’t benefit Netflix as much as it could.  When Netflix launches a TV show, all episodes from a season are dumped onto the service at once.  When this happened to the recently released political drama House of Cards, many Netflix subscribers reported binge watching the show.  This involved viewers watching several episodes per day, and many even managed to finish the entire season within one week of starting it.  Network TV channels stagger the distribution of their TV shows in an attempt to gain as much ad revenue as possible over a long period of time.  With Netflix’s lack of ads, the only reason they would stagger its release of episodes is to hold on to subscribers for as long as possible.  Luckily, they allow consumers to take advantage of the service as they please instead.

Netflix first started releasing original content with the Norwegian show Lilyhammer.  Lilyhammer was a large success on Norwegian TV, where one fifth of Norway’s population tuned in to watch the premiere. Lilyhammer’s story of a New York gangster starting a new life in Norway also seemed to appeal to an American audience, so Netflix bought up the rights to stream the first season online.  The show was a success for Netflix, and led for Netflix to commission an additional season with the Norwegian TV network.

Netflix’s recently released original series House of Cards has shown that Netflix has the potential to exclusively stream high quality content.  Based off a British political drama of the same name, House of Cards tells the story of fictional senator Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who exacts revenge on his party when not given the place in the newly elected president’s cabinet that he was promised.  House of Cards is David Fincher’s (director of Fight Club) first TV show, and the quality of the show rivals that of some of the most high profile prime time dramas.  The high quality acting from Kevin Spacey is far from reminiscent of many made-for-Internet shows.  Both House of Cards’ positive critical reception and quickly achieved popularity show how antiquated the current model for the distribution of TV shows is when the Internet provides a cheaper and more effective may to distribute content.

Netflix has quite a bit of future original programming lined up to keep its subscribers.  Cult classic show, Arrested Development, will return with a fourth season exclusive to Netflix.  Weeds’ creator, Jenji Kohan, is adapting the memoir of Piper Kerman into a new Netflix original show called Orange Is the New Black, an interesting move for Kohan who has seen huge success with TV network Showtime in the past.  For its younger viewers, Netflix is distributing an exclusive animated show called Turbo F.A.S.T, which is based off of DreamWorks’s family film Turbo, set to be released at the box office before the Netflix show premieres.

Netflix may have lost a large amount of subscribers due to failed content deals and price hikes in recent years, but original programming seems to be a step in the right direction.  While purchasing content distribution rights from other companies becomes more and more expensive, original programming has a relatively stable price and keeps consumers subscribed to the service.  As long as Netflix can keep up with the quality of its original programming, it will continue to grow as an interesting competitor and supplementary service to the traditional cable provider.