Mad Men gained over 1 mil viewers thanks to Netflix

Is internet television the future? I think we’d all certainly like it to be. Is that why we root for Netflix?

I’m a big fan of Mad Men. The show is great drama, and often filled with brilliant creativity. The actors are skilled, and the story is captivating. In the past however, that hasn’t been enough to bring ratings.

Cable show opener explosion

The show has grown from 2.3 million viewers for last year’s season premier to this years 3.5 million opener. The growth is seen as tremendous especially for a basic cable show.

Ted Sarandos has made a bold claim that that more than 1 million viewer increase was thanks almost exclusively to Netflix. Sarandos is the Chief Content Officer for Netflix.

Online content growth

Sarandos’s claim wasn’t an easily misquoted quip in an interview with a news reporter.

In a presentation at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association convention in Los Angeles, Sarandos told an audience, “We brought maybe a million viewers to AMC.” There’s no doubt that “the Netflix effect” can have an impact on a show’s popularity, but can it be this profound?

Cable shows rely heavily on word-of-mouth and in-network advertising. Mad Men was able to gain quite a bit of traction virally. Sarandos is basically claiming that Netflix was the catalyst.

Content creation

Netflix knows that it’s future isn’t just in distributing content, but in creating it. They need to prove effective at generating their own buzz on original programming.

Netflix will have it’s effect. If they can do it for Mad Men, can they do it for their own shows like House of Cards and Lillyhammer?

Image Source: Slashgear