1 February marked a potential turning point in broadcasting. That may sound a very grandiose statement but history may show it to be true. That day, Netflix the video subscription service, which up until that point had only broadcast films and old TV series, put on it's service a brand-new political drama series "House of cards' on which it is reported it cost $100m to produce.
House of cards was originally a BBC TV series which starred the late Ian Richardson. In it he played the role of the government's chief whip, Francis Urquart, whose Machiavellian manipulations of the government served his political purpose. His character became best known for his Catchphrase "you might say that, I couldn't possibly comment."
Netflix have transferred it to the American government and it stars the US actor Kevin Spacey in the lead role. It's directed by David Fincher, best known for his film work and besides Kevin Spacey has a host of well-known American actors featured in it. The script is very sharp but surprisingly Aaron Sorkin's not involved despite his working with the Director on The Social Network. It is beautifully filmed and one of my friends has already referred to it as being the best TV programme is since The Wire.
That's the main point though, is it a TV program? It isn't actually being broadcast on any TV channels (yet) as it's only available through the Internet via Netflix. What's more they've made 13 episodes and all 13 are readily available now. So this also takes away the "waiting until next week to see what happens" syndrome. As long as you have 13 hours readily available you can watch the whole series in one sitting!
This is the next stage In being incomplete control of what you watch and when you watch it. While many of us either record items to watch when we choose to or use catch up services to watch things at a time that suits us, this takes things to the next natural stage of just being out there on the Internet for us to pick up when we want to. Do programmes actually need to be broadcast?
Netflix are rumoured to have five original series to be released this year and this is a fascinating development in "How we watch, what we watch and when we watch it."
I suspect in no time at all, a growing percentage of what we watch through our TV, may come via the Internet and not have been shown first on a TV channel.
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