Judging by its reception among critics at least, House of Cards, Netflix’s $100m experiment in original television, is a major success.
Starring Kevin Spacey and directed by David Fincher, whose movie credits include The Social Network and Seven, anything less than raves across the board would have been surprising. And for Netflix, critical acclaim counts for next to nothing.
It has pioneered the “big data” approach to online media, whereby every possible measure of enjoyment is captured, analysed and stored forever. Netflix knows every film and television show every single one of its more than one million British subscribers have ever watched and when, and whether they stuck with each until the end. It will have a better idea than any traditional broadcaster would have about whether its big investment in House of Cards was worthwhile.
House of Cards made its debut on 1 February and for now Netflix is playing its own cards close to its chest. A spokesman refused to be drawn on how popular it has been, what impact its high-profile introduction has had on the rate of new subscriptions or how viewers are choosing to watch the 13 parts, which were all made available at the same time.
“We’re not releasing any data, but we are happy with the reception the show has gotten in the media, on social media and from our members in reviews,” he said.
One third party internet traffic monitoring firm, Procera Networks, has released some figures that offer at least a hint.
“We were able to distinguish the House of Cards traffic from other Netflix traffic,” explained marketing chief Cam Cullen.
“On one [American] broadband network, 11 per cent of Netflix subscribers watched at least one episode of the series.”
Although imprecise, Procera Networks’ figures suggest significant portion of fans “binged” on the entire series in the first weekend it was available. On one network for instance, half of one per cent of Netflix subscribers watched the 13th episode on Saturday 2 February, when it had only been available for one day.
“It is clear that the first few episodes were the most heavily watched, but the later episodes got their fair share of action,” said Mr Cullen.
“The question is if the series will have longevity with the binge viewing or not, and Netflix will surely be watching the replays of the show over time.”
Binge viewing is not a new phenomenon, of course. For years series such as 24 and The Wire have enjoyed huge success on DVD after broadcast and the box set is firm fixture of many household entertainment schedules. What is new with House of Cards, and has sparked debate among the technology and media punditry, is that it effectively made its debut as a box set. It runs against prevailing wisdom in the television industry that the chance to discuss the twists and turns of dramas on Facebook and Twitter as they are revealed is an important part of modern viewing.
Dave Winer, a well-known web developer, wrote on his blog that he had reactivated his Netflix subscription to watch House of Cards but he was missed “the ability to discuss it with people online”.
“I don't want spoilers, and I don't want to be a spoiler,” he said.
But others are revelling in the opportunity to be completely drawn into the show’s dark view of life on Capitol Hill. And despite the gripes, Netflix, with its vast stores of behavioural data, appears to have enough evidence that the experiment is paying off.
“No rest for the wicked,” said writer Beau Willimon this week. “Hard at work writing season two of House of Cards.”
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