Posted on 03/19/2011 3:40:01 AM PDT by abb
There is a new competitor for HBO and Showtime in the television landscape — and, for the first time, it is not a television network.
Netflix, the popular online film service, said on Friday that it had licensed the exclusive rights to “House of Cards,” a show that is to be directed by David Fincher, the director of “The Social Network,” and to star Kevin Spacey.
The deal immediately makes Netflix a player in premium television programming.
“House of Cards,” a serialized political drama, will look and feel like a traditional TV show, but it will not be distributed that way. Rather than having its debut at a certain time and date on a TV channel, “House of Cards” will have its debut online, where there are no set showtimes. It will be marketed through Netflix’s recommendation engine. And it will probably be released in batches, several episodes at a time, since subscribers like to binge on serialized shows.
“Just a couple years ago, this would be completely unheard of,” Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer for Netflix, acknowledged in an interview. “It speaks a lot to how quickly this market is emerging and to how quickly Netflix has become a real, legitimate entertainment brand in the eyes of both consumers and content creators.”
The deal, first previewed several days ago by Deadline.com, underscored just how muscular Netflix had become in the media business. By licensing “House of Cards,” Netflix is essentially selling itself to Hollywood as an alternative to networks like HBO — and indicating that it is willing to pay high prices for high-quality shows. Netflix would not comment on the value of the deal, but it was believed to be close to $100 million.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com ...
"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."
Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer, blogger and commentator
ping
Gnip
My smart phone awaits!
We watched “The Pillars of the Earth” miniseries on Netflix this week. Good series, very interesting period drama. TV was “blah” this week, it’s going to die at this rate.
We like Netflix however they need to get more content online so I can stream it from my DVR. Said content must be HD and support Dolby 5.1.
I bought a new wallet this week and I noticed I had a Blockbuster card when I was transferring things. I shredded it.
Amazon should buy or partner with Netflix to become the Microsoft of media.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/16/how-blogs-have-changed-journalism/
How blogs have changed journalism
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-03-17-video17_ST_N.htm
NPR sting raises questions about media ethics, influence
http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/should_news_paywalls_demand_le.php
Should News Paywalls Demand Less in Poorer Countries?
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-save-journalism-with-personalization-2011-3
How The Personalized Newspaper Can Save Journalism
http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/york-times-ceo-janet-robinson-speaks-pay-meter/149457/
New York Times CEO on Pay Meter: Possible Slight Dip in Traffic Will Be Short Term
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-publishers-lobby-and-re-group-on-digital-policy/
Publishers Lobby And Re-Group On Digital Policy
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/03/newspaper-ad-sales-hit-25-year-low-in.html
Newspaper ad sales hit 25-year low in 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/business/media/14voices.html?_r=2&ref=technology
When Unrest Stirs, Bloggers Are Already in Place
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-freedom-20110311,0,259608.story
Freedom Communications seeks to sell some or all of its media properties
http://blogs.forbes.com/lewisdvorkin/2011/03/15/the-soul-of-media-curation-and-editing-all-one-in-the-same/
The soul of media: Curation and editing, all one in the same
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206443286759446.html
Selling Video Scoops Online
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164204576203262433339214.html
Netflix in Talks for Original Series
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102592/Questioning-the-Western-Approach-to-Training.aspx
Questioning the Western Approach to Journalism Training
Then and now
... and it's much lower than that in real (inflation adjusted) terms ... arguably down 75 percent not just 50.
Any way you slice it, the newsers' financial performance has been pathetic.
And it keeps getting worse!
The ad numbers for local TV showed improvement for 2010. IMO, most of the improvement was a result of political ads.
Read the book. The miniseries really butchered the story.
Waleran was much more complex - and redeemable. And where did they get that ridiculous death scene?
There was no incestuous relationship between William and Regan Hamleigh. In fact, William was much more evil in the book - with no attempt to make excuses for his behavior, making him much more complex than the cartoon character the series related.
There was no execution scene with Prior Philip. I don't even know where they came up with that.
Tom Builder wasn't killed by William.
...and it goes on and on.
The book is by far more complex and intriguing. The weird thing is, they didn't have to change the story so much for the miniseries. They had more than enough real-estate in the eight-part episodes that they could have told the real tale without much cropping.
The good thing about the miniseries though, all of the characters were cast extremely well. It's very easy to imagine Ian McShane as Waleran and Mathew MacFadyen as Prior Philip.
Love their Blu-ray rental service. If they ever drop that, why bother. The streaming stuff if lousy 720p and very limited selection. Only so many suckers will take the lousy streaming even if they offer everything.
I think I'm going to get a Roku box soon so that I can stream Netflix, Hulu, etc., to my television by way of the internet and pull the plug on cable TV altogether.
Your lap top will do all that.
TV is dead to me. All I watch is Netflix and Roku. It doesn't matter to me to wait a season for a TV series to be on Netflix. It's a pleasure to watch them on my own schedule and without commercials (although as the changeover occurs, I'm sure the studios will start inserting commercials into the online content as well - ala Hulu).
You'll like the Roku. It's simple and it works great and works every time. I was so frustrated streaming from my Sony DVD player. It would stop numerous times to re-buffer, or not get connectivity at all. I've never had those issues with Roku. Worth every penny.
Oh, gee, can't wait to see THAT!
Let's see, democrats good, Republicans evil. Racist. Bigoted. Wanna kill old people. Wanna starve babies. Causes women and children to be hit hardest. Warmongers. Sarah Palin, really Stuuu-pid. Can see Russia from her house. Slut daughters.
Did I get that correct?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/03/is-netflix-building-a-house-of-cards-in-original-programming.html
Is Netflix building a ‘House of Cards’ in original programming?
I almost never watch local TV and absolutely never watch commercials (or read ads for that matter) on any media.
That said, I would guess your analysis is spot on. With a few minor exceptions such as smart phones, trade schools, and possibly tablet computers, I simply cannot think of a segment of the economy that is growing enough and is competitive enough to justify material amounts of advertising.
We got a roku box for christmas from my son several years ago....then subscribed to netflix....love it, quality is great, and when the uverse is down, we can still get movies from netflix...oh, and if uverse (at&t) comes to your town, get it!!!!!! beats the hell out of cable, hands down
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