Since 1997 Netflix has been innovating the way people view media and changing the landscape of how people rent and watch movies. First starting with their revolutionary mail based subscription service, they once again innovated in a big way in regards to their online streaming services, giving people the opportunities to watch hundreds of movies with just a click of the mouse. And now, in 2013, Netflix is once again innovating and taking on the conventions of how we watch television.
There has been a paradigm shift in recent years where instead of people basing their viewing schedules on when their favorite shows are set to air, they are instead basing them on when it is convenient through services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO GO, and Amazon Prime. Television networks have definitely taken notice to this trend due to their decreased television ratings and have often responded by streaming their shows online through their respective websites, as well as producing internet exclusive content for their online viewers. Netflix is on the forefront of this trend with the release of their new political drama, House of Cards. House of Cards is the first netflix exclusive show and, based on the response and the quality of the show, I believe it will start a snowball effect of these services creating this type of content. 86% of current netflix users claim that they will keep their subscription to netflix if House of Cards is available to them. I feel like such a positive response will inspire other sites to adopt similar business models and potentially change the way we watch television forever.
