[Forbes]
On Friday, Kevin Spacey fans will have the chance to watch all 13 episodes of the actor’s new TV show, House Of Cards, as long as they subscribe to Netflix. The show premieres on Netflix and instead of doling out the episodes once per week, the streaming service is making the whole series available at once.
House of Cards is Netflix’s new calling card — high-quality original programming that you can’t find on Amazon streaming or iTunes. The idea is that with original programming, Netflix will keep subscribers who might be tempted to defect to other services and, if the original shows are good enough and cause enough buzz, even land new subscribers. In a recent earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said he expects subscriptions to be up in the next quarter.
So far, the show is getting good reviews. Tim Goodman at The Hollywood Reporter (who was only able to preview the first two episodes) says, “If Netflix wanted to come out of the gates strong as a content provider worthy of any cable channel, it picked a stellar choice in House of Cards.”