Written by Ruchir Dey

Student no – 33791880

Netflix’s emergence into the streaming space was a game changer to the norms and rules for audiences and how they viewed television shows. Netflix as a company was better than most when it came to adapting newer technologies in the early 2010’s. The internet business model they adopted was coined as “the long tail” by Chris Anderson. as per McDonald (2016, p.205) this term meant “the long tail signifies the growing importance of  niche markets and the subsequent shift from exclusively relying on massive successful commodities  to more modestly successful commodities that generate value over longer periods of time”. Netflix created a situation where they were getting mass subscribers due to the blockbusters on their platform but they brought in content for niche audiences and this further grew their subscriber base. Netflix created their user-interface to be easy to navigate and user friendly. This was an added advantage in creating rifts in the television space. These elements worked to make them popular and profitable. eventually leading them to start producing their own original content.

Poster for House of Cards, Netflix Original 2013

House of Cards was the first Netflix original show and the flagship when the platform launched. Here significant celebrities like Kevin Spacey and Robin wright were partnered up with a maverick director and show creator, David Fincher. The show and subsequent shows after changed the way television is viewed. as highlighted by Jenner (2016, p.260) “Netflix, thus, builds on models of individualised viewing practices  and self-scheduling of TV”. With House of Cards, Netflix abandoned the 1 episode per week model HBO and network television were doing. Instead it dumped the whole season of House of Cards on Netflix. All 13 episodes were immediately in the hand of the viewer. In many ways shifting power for decision making into viewers hand. As mentioned by the quote this truly introduced tv self scheduling and binge culture for audiences. A game changer in more ways than one in the television industry.

References

Kevin McDonald and Daniel Smith-Rowsey (2016), The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21^st Century. London; New York: Bloomsbury.

Mareike Jenner, “Is this TVIV? On Netflix, TVIII and binge-watching”, New Media and Society, Feb 2016, 18 (2): 257-273