Signaling a serious move into a more traditional pay TV service model, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) will reportedly launch a $100 million 26-episode original TV series, "House of Cards." To get the rights to do so, the over-the-top video purveyor outbid HBO and AMC, among others.
Original programming would transform Netflix from a purveyor-via rental and streaming-of other people's content ("reruns," as Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) President-CEO Brian Roberts termed it)-into a pay TV channel similar to HBO which offers a mix of increasingly important original programming to complement its stable of uncut movies.
It could also provide the attraction Netflix will need to attract more subscribers into its base as it faces the inevitable increased programming fees coming up later this year and next.
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