Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) has made its next bet on exclusive programming. The company said it ordered 13 episodes of a new TV series from Sony Pictures Television and the team that created the show "Damages." The move is Netflix's latest in commissioning exclusive, first-run TV programming and follows a string of recent successes with "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black."
The difference this time is the studio. Netflix's previous partners on new, exclusive series have been smaller independent studios. Sony Pictures Television is one of Hollywood's largest and considered a "major" studio along with the likes of Warner Bros., NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS. But within that group, Sony stands out as well: It's not owned by a major U.S. media conglomerate.
"We're willing to do different things and bet on the future," Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television, told the Wall Street Journal. "We're pumped up--it's a challenge to show a major studio can be in business with one of these services."
Sony is also the studio that made "Breaking Bad" for AMC, a show whose audience on the cable network grew after Netflix began carrying its prior seasons.
The new series, which does not have name yet, will be a psychological thriller about "a family of siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when their black-sheep brother returns home," Netflix said. Production is scheduled to start early next year.
For more:
- the Wall Street Journal had this report
- read the Netflix press release
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