Netflix has confirmed that they will be licensing “House of Cards,” a political thriller set to release in 2012, produced by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey. Like most of my fellow cable cutters out there, I am always ecstatic to hear new content is landing on Netflix. “House of Cards,” however, may become more than just another Netflix original similar to Zach Galafanakis’ own: “Live at the Purple Onion,” it may mark a shift for them into the first viewing window (or the the first public viewing opportunity). This deviates from their current strategy of obtaining titles later, sometimes much later, in their lifecycles, as is the case with shows like NBCs “Saturday Night Live” that have already been aired on TV and other outlets.
Time will tell if this is a trend that will help Netflix tighten its chokehold on traditional television and movie outlets, but it should be an especially promising move for smaller producers. In the face of Hollywood spending bloated budgets on atrocities, I cannot help but hope that this will open the doors to indie producers willing to approach Netflix with similar deals, effectively bypassing the the heavily bureaucratic industry and perhaps eventually even the MPAA (fingers crossed).
