Credit: Shutterstock photoImage via indiewire.com
Netflix (NFLX) is the forbearer of the television viewing experience revolution. The company essentially put out of business the millennial watering hole known as Blockbuster Videos, offering people the option of having their DVD rentals sent to them in the mail rather than having to actually drive or walk to an actual brick-and-mortar video rental store.
While surprisingly still offering its customers the ability to rent movies via mail, Netflix's streaming service is changing the status quo of how people watch television programming. Since the advent of the television and networks, many television series aired once a week - you may be lucky and catch back-to-back new episodes on special occasions.
Instead of having to wait three years to watch all of the missions of the Captain Kirk lead USS Enterprise or seven years to see if Don Draper can find himself, Netflix subscribers can binge-watch these series in their entireties in a matter of days or weeks.
Not only does Netflix offer a plethora of classic and contemporary television series and movies all at the click of a mouse, remote, or video game controller, they also develop their own series and movies in the same vein as the Time Warner (TWX) owned and critically adorned HBO.
Similarly to how HBO's current flagship series is Game of Thrones , Netflix's flagship series is House of Cards . The political thriller starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright debuts its fourth season today, and the series could not be more relevant during an election year in the United States.
House of Cards was Netflix's first original programming, which premiered on February 1 st , 2013 (the series Lilyhammer, which debuted a year earlier, is a partnership between Netflix and Norwegian public television, therefore not truly a "Netflix Original."), was an instant success. For its first season, House of Cards became the first Internet-based series to be nominated and win Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
It received nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2013, including "Outstanding Drama Series," "Outstanding Lead Actor" for Mr. Spacey, "Outstanding Lead Actress" for Ms. Wright, and "Outstanding Directing" for David Fincher. The show also earned four Golden Globe Award nominations the same year with Ms. Wright winning the "Best Actress - Television Series Drama" award.
House of Cards followed up the success with its second season, receiving thirteen Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2014, including "Outstanding Lead Actor," "Outstanding Lead Actress," "Outstanding Directing" for Carl Franklin, "Outstanding Drama Series," and "Outstanding Writing" for the series' showrunner Beau Willimon. The second season also earned three Golden Globe Award nominations the same year, with Mr. Spacey winning the "Best Actor - Television Series Drama" award.
The Popularity of the Show
Netflix is notoriously known for not releasing data about its streaming services. Therefore, we rely on different estimates compiled by research firms. According to data from a 2014 report by Procera Networks, "Anywhere from 6-10% of subscribers watched at least one episode of House of Cards" in the United States. Furthermore, in the U.S., "the average number of episodes watched during the weekend was three."
At the time this report was published, Netflix had roughly 34 million paid domestic subscribers. Therefore, anywhere around two to three million paid subscribers have watched at minimum one episode of House of Cards.
An article by Variety back in April 2015 also cited data from a research firm about the viewership and popularity of Netflix original series. The article used data from the San Diego-based Luth Research claiming that "the third season of House of Cards , which premiered Feb. 27, attracted 6.5% of subs over its first 30 days of availability."
The company's sample is somewhat problematic, in that it consisted of 2,500 Netflix subscribers watching Netflix series via their personal computers, tablets, or smartphones, completely neglecting the segment of the population that watches Netflix via the app on smart TVs and video game consoles.
However, assuming the sample accurately represents the viewing habits of the 40-plus million paid domestic subscribers Netflix had at the time the article was published, roughly 2.6 million paid domestic subscribers watched House of Cards during this 30 day span.
Millions of people watching a show during another "Golden Age of Television" is nothing to easily dismiss. Yet, these estimated totals for the series pales in comparison to many traditional network television series. For example, Gen-X and Baby Boomer favorite NCIS, the Navy-police juggernaut on CBS (CBS) draws a ridiculous 17 million viewers per week, while the ABC - a Disney (DIS) subsidiary - series Agent Carter had total viewers between 5 million to 7.6 million back in late-January, according to Nielson Ratings.
If you're someone who doesn't rely on Nielson ratings to measure popularity, take a look at the graph below detailing the number of IMDB votes that determine a show's or film's IMDB rating:
Most-Rated Netflix Shows | PrettyFamous
NCIS has a little over 82 thousand votes, which would be fourth on this list, while Agent Carter has just about 43 thousand votes, which would be seventh on this list.
An article from The Atlantic back in August 2015 adds some additional perspective on defining a show's popularity:
"The most essayed-about show might be Girls . The most tweeted-about show is, statistically , Pretty Little Liars . The most talked-about, right now, is House of Cards . But the most popular show (which is barely essayed-about, rarely tweeted-about, and hardly talked-about) is NCIS , whose audience is literally as big as those three other shows- combined ... times two ."
Final Thoughts
The following is purely anecdotal, but I feel like there is some weight to the reasoning. Off the top of your head, can you name some of the main characters of NCIS ? I know I can't, and would have to go to IMDB to find out their names. If I were to mention the names Frank and Clair Underwood, or tell you that Freddie made the best ribs in DC, you would probably get the reference, right?
This is because popularity isn't measured by Nielson ratings or other viewership metrics, but rather how these shows resonate in the lexicon of popular culture. Not everyone has an HBO subscription, but it feels like everyone knows or has watched The Sopranos. Characters like Liz Lemmon, Charlie Kelly, and Eric Cartman, and phrases like, "There is always money in the banana stand," are quickly recognized by large segments of the population.
Netflix owes much of its popularity and critical recognition to how successful House of Cards is. If the series was a flop, Netflix subscribers would have been quite skeptical to watch other wildly popular Netflix original series like Orange is the New Black, Narcos, Marvel's Daredevil, and Marvel's Jessica Jones . Even the documentary Making a Murder, despite being a fundamentally different series, would not be as popular or acclaimed if Netflix hadn't garnered the reputation for making high quality original content.
The streaming video company solidified its current reputation as a legitimate alternative to traditional television because of its massive collection of television series and films, as well as its collection of high quality original content. And the primary catalyst was House of Cards.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
