House of Cards (Netflix)

[Guy Gardener]

The real time data they are collecting from your "subscription" is as good as if they had bugged your living room.

You're paying them to monitor you.

That's intimately masochistic.

 

[tighr]

I binged my way through the rest of the episodes last night and today.

Having now finished Season 1, I have reversed my earlier admonition that they shouldn't have released them all at once. I am now impatiently awaiting the release of Season 2.

Although, had they released them one at a time, I would still have that same impatience, but I gather Netflix loses less viewers per season this way than the major networks lose by spreading their episodes out.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Is Netflix going to be using this model for the release of Arrested Development.

 

[PsychoPere]

Yes, just as they did with Lilyhammer and almost certainly will with Derek, Hemlock Grove, Narcos, Orange Is The New Black, and any other future shows.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Netflix has Derek? It's a Channel 4 show here. Wonder if that mean they'll get it exclusively when Channel 4 is done or what, because LoveFilm just signed a deal to get access to Channel 4's back catalogue.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The real time data they are collecting from your "subscription" is as good as if they had bugged your living room.

You're paying them to monitor you.

That's intimately masochistic.

Or narcassistic, since it means they're paying attention to MEEEEE and what I want, which never having had a Nielsens box is more than I can say for regular TV.

I can't remember if this has been noted yet, but apparently it's no coincidence that Netflix chose House of Cards in particular to remake, snce they saw a connection between viewers of the BBC version and both Spacey and Fincher fans. So hey, put em together and you have a winner, right?

For at least a year, Netflix has been explicit about its plans to exploit its Big Data capabilities to influence its programming choices. “House of Cards” is one of the first major test cases of this Big Data-driven creative strategy. For almost a year, Netflix executives have told us that their detailed knowledge of Netflix subscriber viewing preferences clinched their decision to license a remake of the popular and critically well-regarded 1990 BBC miniseries. Netflix’s data indicated that the same subscribers who loved the original BBC production also gobbled down movies starring Kevin Spacey or directed by David Fincher. Therefore, concluded Netflix executives, a remake of the BBC drama with Spacey and Fincher attached was a no-brainer, to the point that the company committed $100 million for two 13-episode seasons.

I've heard of TV shows made by committee, but that's the first one made by, what, computer programmers' logic? A+B+C = PROFIT! Does a creative business really work like that?

 

[tighr]

Or narcassistic, since it means they're paying attention to MEEEEE and what I want, which never having had a Nielsens box is more than I can say for regular TV.

I've always wondered who gets those things. I've never gotten one. One Nielsen viewer counts for something like one million viewers, so that's a lot of skew that you could provide to the market. Then again, all it takes is one idiot watching Honey Boo Boo or Survivor 843 or other reality dreck to imbalance the ratings.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I checked out the Salon article that quote was taken from and it's even funnier and scarier than I thought.

Correlating the raw numbers of Kevin Spacey fans who also like David Fincher and have a fondness for British political dramas is just the beginning. Netflix knows enough about what you are watching to judge specific aspects of content as well. Last summer senior data scientist Mohammad Sabah reported at a conference that Netflix was capturing specific screen shots to analyze in-the-moment viewing habits, and the company was “looking to take into account other characteristics.”

What could those characteristics be? GigaOm’s report of the Sabah presentation speculated that “it could make a lot of sense to consider things such as volume, colors and scenery that might give valuable signals about what viewers like.”

Wow, that's getting down to minutae pretty quickly, but what about the bigger picture. They're making a basic mistake if they're assuming that the whole universe of "what people want" can be based on what already exists. How about what doesn't already exist, but should? Market research can't substitute for creativity.

And even if they're just looking at what already exists in their library, the number of possible connections is staggering. Why spend $100M on the House of Cards-Spacey-Fincher connection and ignore all the other dots that could be connected? I'll bet the Star Trek-Ben Browder-Josh Whedon axis is pretty strong if you thought to look for it.

And how do they know any given connection is meaningful? Maybe a gangster drama starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Stephen Soderberg would have done just as well, even though there may be no particularly strong relationship that can be found in the data, but those three elements would click for ineffible creative reasons.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Luck is still haunting Hoffman. I saw some new bad press about that a few days ago.

 

[sidious618]

I loved Luck. Damn good show.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's the changing times.

If they continued making Ben Hurr after 4 stuntmen where trampled to death by horses in that chariot race, you just have to wonder how much more beloved equinekind is than mankind?

 

[tighr]

So no spoiler thread? Any interest in a spoilers thread?

 

[tighr]

Spoilers Thread now up. Discuss!

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=203239

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Good idea to split the threads, I still haven't gotten past ep three! I guess I'm pushing that bell curve out...at this rate, I'll finish the series by oh July.

Anyway, Amazon is coming on strong, locking up exclusives. Netflix needs to grab the kind of series that the early adopter/tech-head crowd likes, namely sci fi, hello!

Under the Dome.

CBS is using Amazon revenue to help fund a series that is a bit out of their normal range for nichieness.

Amazon gets exclusive deals, including Falling Skies.

 

[bigdaddy]

I love Falling Skies, season 2 was so much better than the first.

Interesting article on ratings....

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/why-netfli...I0BHBzdGNhdANuZXdzBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=3

 

[Amaris]

It's possible that yourself and Odo_ital are the only two people in America who haven't completed the season.

I've got this work thing getting in the way of my binge Netflixing.

I haven't seen all of it, either. I only discovered that it was already released, yesterday. I've made it up to episode 5, getting ready to watch episode 6. It definitely has my attention.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Late to the party, but in possession of the correct sort of appetite.

 

[Amaris]

I just finished the last couple of episodes. All I can say is "moar!"

 

[Guy Gardener]

My screen needs a good clean.

I thought that had typed "Maori" because you were having a stroke.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I love Falling Skies, season 2 was so much better than the first.

Interesting article on ratings....

"I honestly have no motivation to do it," Sarandos said of releasing numbers. "I don't sell ads, so ratings don't matter in that way."

Oooh baloney, they do care about two types of ratings: how many new subscribers come in thru the HoC ads (and stick around after the free trial) and whether HoC has impacted the rate of existing subscriber churn. Why spend a dime on a show that doesn't influence either number? They just have no motive to make either of those measurements public, except...

There is a motivation to release ratings, namely for the PR value. And they have a golden opportunity here to set the expectations for the whole category by spinning those numbers deftly. They've already set an expectation that "binge viewing is good" but now they should be figuring out what the baseline for success is in a streaming series, and then declaring that HoC is a success according to that metric.

Of course if they think they can set a higher baseline with a different series (maybe that Eli Roth horror series?) they'd be smart to hold off for now and set the baseline higher, so that it's harder for competitors to meet it. Right now they're still in learning mode. It's possible that a political thriller and a horror series are vastly different in their appeal on streaming, and what about a revival of a cult series like Arrested Development?

Netflix has shown a lack of sophistication in PR before, with the whole Quiwkster debacle. The tension here is between Netflix setting the wrong baseline by jumping too soon, vs waiting too long and letting Amazon beat them to the punch.

EDIT: Oh wait, we will get the numbers...in April...when Netflix releases its financials for the quarter. THEN we shall see! And no doubt we'll get some indication of coming attractions before then, as Netflix sets expectations. The fact that Reed Hastings isn't spinning wildly now is a good sign that Wall Street will not be terribly unhappy with the results.