So how was your Fourth of July weekend?
My wife and I spent six hours watching House of Cards on Netflix. Now, I know everyone known to the media god has expressed their opinions on how good House of Cards is, and for $3mm an episode it should be, but I have a different perspective.
Over a 48 hour period we watched six hours of one program. If you deduct eight hours a night for sleep, (we like to get our full eight hours in), that means we dedicated 19% of our time to watching Netflix!!
As reported in an earlier blog, The Business of The Kids Business a new report from cable channel Pivot claims that 13% of "Millenials", (who are now in their mid 20's), have cut the cord from traditional program suppliers and gone web only. Now admittedly, my ancient 45 year old self doesn't fit into this demo, but look what this 45 year old did this weekend, we watched Netflix, not cable.
Why did this happen? Well, House of Cards really is THAT good! Both my wife and I are completely hooked. We used the OTT capabilities of Apple TV in the country and the experience was great, and when we got back to the city on Sunday night, our old Apple TV didn't have OTT capabilities, (I must get a new one), so we turned the TV off and watched on a laptop. As much as I look like a bronzed young 25 year old, I'm actually as stated before a crotchety 45 year old, what the hell am I doing watching high quality drama on a laptop??? It's really that good of a show!
I pay $8.00 a month for Netflix. In the two months since I signed up I have watched the new series of Arrested Development, (I don't care what the critics say I loved it), and now I am spending hours watching House of Cards. All of these shows are original Netflix productions, and the more I love them the more I a) spend time on Netflix and b) love Netflix as a brand.
If I didn't watch anything else this month on Netflix each episode cost me $1.33 which I don't think is all that bad, (my wife really screws me on the price of the popcorn and concessions but hey), but you know we're going to finish the series so, that's 13 hours at 61 cents an hour. Throw in a couple of movies a month and we're down to 50 cents an hour. So, I suppose the question is, what would you pay for advertising free high quality entertainment? So far I am more than happy to pay 50 cents an hour.
If you haven't seen House of Cards it really is a superbly written and acted political drama. Kevin Spacey is amazing, (as he usually is), and the supporting cast are truly great. If you have ever lived in Washington DC, (I lived there for five years), you will know how realistic the cynical, corrupt, money exploiting plot lines and characters are. This drama is better than ANYTHING I am watching on TV at the moment. Let's just think about that for a second...better than any other drama on TV. As we know network TV is in a dire situation. the networks don't know whether to go gameshow, reality of drama. Ratings are down, and cable is starting to fracture in certain demos. The only stupid thing is I don't own Netflix stock...yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment