Viewers who prefer to watch their series as a "marathon," compressing a season into a few hours or viewing into a single evening, are getting a special treat from Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), which is making all eight of the episodes from its new dramedy series Lilyhammer available on Feb. 6, the day it debuts.
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Click here to watch the trailer for Lilyhammer. |
It's an interesting approach.
Programmers like the Discovery Channel have used it for several years, offering an entire season of Deadliest Catch, for example, on a slow-traffic day like Saturday.
But Netflix is taking it a step further by offering an untested series in its entirety.
"If you love the first episode, there is no need to wait until next week, or to set a DVR, to catch the next one," Netflix's chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, said in a statement Tuesday.
Lilyhammer stars E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt as a New York mobster who's been relocated to Lillehammer, Norway, by the federal witness protection program after ratting on his boss.
Lilyhammer is the first of the original content Netflix has promised its subscribers. It plans to debut House of Cards later this year and is partnering in the revival of cancelled comedy series Arrested Development, which it says will come out in early 2013.
Upwards of 50 percent, and "sometimes 60 percent" of Netflix streaming is now TV episodes, Sarandos said during a keynote address at MIPCOM conference in Cannes in October.
"That can be misperceived as Netflix giving up on movies, which it's not," said Sarandos. "It's just consumers saying what they want." That consumer demand, he said, is why Netflix signed a deal to license Mad Men content for streaming, as well as its original content deals.
For more:
- see this release
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