Why is there a special place in the history of episodic television for House of Cards? Is it because it is probably considered the first non-broadcast network series to grab the public’s attention on a massive scale, even though it is only being shown on Netflix? Is it because the first seasons was released in its entirety immediately, stimulating the craze for “binge watching” the entire first season at once?
The series popularity gave the green light for other series to follow delivery to the public in the same way, such as “Orange is the new Black” (also from Netflix) and created the me-too full season delivery of shows on other non-broadcast outlets, including Amazon and YouTube.
The broadcast model may not be dead, but the on-demand, online full-season alternative is now firmly planted as a way to deliver shows, made even more pleasurable to watch by eliminating in-stream advertising.
Here’s Netflix’s trailer for Season 3 of House of Cards, the one that started the craze, and notice the bug about 30 seconds in letting you know that seasons 1 and 2 are “now streaming”.
Get your OTT device ready, it looks like a great 3rd season is on its way, you just have to wait until February 27th. And still no transmedia version of this property? Hmmmm, Frank Underwood, where are your alternative worlds?
