Netflix officially jumped into original programming Friday when it announced plans to air the TV series "House of Cards" exclusively on its "Watch Instantly" streaming platform, beginning in 2012.
The series will be available to U.S. and Canadian customers, and Netflix has committed to at least 26 episodes of the series, which is based on a BBC mini-series from the 1990s. It will star Kevin Spacey as a politician with his eye on the top job in U.S. politics. David Fincher, the Oscar-nominated director of "The Social Network," will direct the show's pilot, which was written by Beau Willimon.
The move marks the first time that Netflix has aired original content, which Netflix acknowledged was a "risky" move.
"While we aren't producing the show and don't own it, we are agreeing to license it before it is successfully produced," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a blog post. "With David Fincher's unique vision, the incredible acting skills of Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, and a great and timeless story of power, corruption and lies, we think 'House of Cards' will become a big hit among Netflix members and thus, represents a manageable risk."
When reports about a possible Netflix original series first emerged earlier this week, sources said the move could help Netflix compete with premium TV channels like HBO. Netflix took a dig at HBO today, noting that "gripping, serialized one-hour drama, such as 'Heroes,' 'Lost,' 'Dexter,' and 'Weeds,' has become a very important part of the Netflix experience and over the years, we've been able to add these shows from many different channels, with the notable exception of HBO."
Netflix users can rent HBO shows via DVD, but Netflix has not yet secured a license to stream HBO content.
Sarandos said that Netflix might air more exclusive series in the future "if an opportunity arises that has the key elements a show needs to be successful; great storytelling and great storytellers."
"Our goal remains to constantly expand our selection of previous seasons of popular TV shows," he said.
During a January earnings calls, Netflix said it now has more than 20 million subscribers, 3.08 million of which joined in the last quarter alone."Streaming is much bigger for us than DVD, in hours of entertainment delivered, and streaming is growing much faster than DVD," Netflix said during the call.
While some have criticized Netflix for the lack of available content via Watch Instantly, the company has been hard at work in the last year securing licensing deals with various film studios. Netflix availability has also expanded - from game consoles and smartphones to peripheral devices like Boxee and Apple TV.
An October report said that Netflix accounts for more than 20 percent of all downstream Internet traffic during the peak usage hours of 8 to 10 pm. On Tuesday, NPD Group also said that Netflix dominates the online digital movie space with 61 percent of the market.