House Of Cards Snubbed HBO For Upstart Netflix

As House of Cards releases its second full season to Netflix, it's become apparent that the internet-based video streaming company isn't the upstart it once was. As HBO continues its upward trend between $4-5 billion in revenue over the past three years, Netflix pushes a much more booming rise, starting at just above $3 billion in revenue in 2011 and hitting at just above $4 billion in revenue in 2013. With the two companies readying for a battle of the revenues here, it would appear that the content battle has already been raging.

Netflix now has its first Golden Globe with "House of Cards" as New York Times data suggests HBO rolls with 101 with its most recent 2 awarded last month. This just goes to show that – at the moment – HBO is still very much the leader in the eyes of the public. Or in the eyes of the awards distributors in these early times for Netflix.

Also according to the same source, the creators of House of Cards shopped the series to several outlets. These outlets included HBO before Netflix, but Neflix was – as you well know – chosen in the end. These same sources suggest that the creators of House of Cards chose Netflix because the company fronted the cash for two seasons in advance. They also suggest that this decision was made because Netflix "left control in the hands of the writer and director" rather than in the hands of "development executives."

Meanwhile according to Procera Networks, Netflix users' worked out a massive binge on House of Cards this past Friday. This past Friday was the debut of the second season of House of Cards, delivered in its entirety as it the norm with Netlix exclusive shows. Procera Networks suggested that for a 7-10 hour period on Friday, 16% of Netflix subscribers "of one cable operator" streamed at least one episode of season two of House of Cards.

They've also suggested that compared to last year's release, the difference is "MASSIVE" – with last year's tuning in amounting to just 2% on a "similar sized network over the entire weekend."