← Just A Moment
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- [00:01]
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Hi, I'm Brant Menzwar and welcome to my show Just A Moment. As a former world touring musician turned keynote speaker and author, I've experienced my share of life altering moments that have both broken me and propelled me forward. How you leverage those moments or push through them will define your destiny. Each week on my show, I'll provide tools on how to maximize those moments as well as interview some of the most successful entrepreneurs, entertainers and athletes on how the power of a single moment changed their life. Join me to learn how to change what's possible for your life. It'll take just a moment.
- [00:39]
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Feeling lost in the noise of social media, Inspo cuts through the clutter, connecting you directly with real insights from real experts and industry leaders. It's a new social network dedicated to knowledge sharing, industry insights and thought leadership. Get the latest from top minds in your field or build your own thought leadership portfolio on Inspo, already trusted by thousands of professionals worldwide. Be part of the conversation and download Inspo Experts today on the App store or visit www.inspo.expert.
- [01:11]
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Welcome to a special edition of Just a Moment, where the guest isn't a person, but a brand. In fact, a brand that has infiltrated more than a quarter of a billion billion households. This is the story of the moment Netflix went from a streaming service you use for reruns to a studio that made the world rethink how we watch television. In 2013, Netflix was still, for many people, that DVD rental company. Yes, they had a streaming service, but it wasn't where you went for something new. Its library was filled with older movies, B tier action flicks, sitcoms you'd already seen. The big networks and cable channels still dominated original content. HBO had Game of Thrones, AMC had Mad Men in Breaking Bad, FX had Sons of Anarchy, Netflix. They were the place you went to catch up, not to see what everyone would be talking about on Monday morning. And that was the problem. Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, Netflix's top executives, knew the streaming market was heating up. Amazon Prime Video was growing. Hulu had strong network partnerships. The studios themselves were starting to eye direct to consumer platforms. If Netflix stayed just a content middleman, they'd eventually get squeezed out. The solution was obvious in concept, original programming, but risky in execution. TV is a graveyard of expensive flops. New shows fail all the time, even when backed by big networks. And Netflix wasn't just launching a show, they'd be launching a brand. As a content creator. The first impression had to be bulletproof. They needed something with star power, prestige And Staying Power, a series that could win awards, grab headlines, and most importantly, convince millions of people to subscribe just to see it. The search for the perfect property led them to a script based on the 1990 British miniseries House of Cards. In the UK version, it was a sharp, dark political satire. The American adaptation was darker still, a Machiavellian tale of ambition, betrayal and power. Inside Washington, D.C. several networks were circling it. HBO, AMC, Showtime. Any of them could have made House of Cards a hit. But Netflix had a weapon the others didn't. Data. They weren't guessing what people wanted. They had years of viewing analytics from millions of subscribers. They knew political dramas performed well on the platform. Kevin Spacey movies were heavily streamed and David Fincher's films were among the most rewatched titles in their library. It was a calculated, data driven move. Then came the boldest decision. Netflix skipped the traditional TV pilot model entirely. No test episodes, no focus group screenings. They committed to two full seasons, 26 episodes, sight unseen. That's a hundred million dollar gamble on a concept the public hadn't even seen a single frame of. And they weren't done rewriting the rules. Netflix would release every single episode of season one at once. No waiting week to week, no cliffhanger frustrations stretched over months. They were betting that people wanted control of their viewing schedule and that once they started, they wouldn't stop until the season was over. One executive at a competing network called the move suicidal. Another said Netflix didn't understand how television worked. Netflix didn't want to play their game. They wanted to change the game entirely. On February 1, 2013, House of Cards landed 13 episodes, ready for anyone to watch at any pace they wanted. The industry watched in disbelief. To TV executives, Netflix's move was madness. For decades, the weekly release model wasn't just tradition, it was a revenue engine. Spreading episodes out meant more weeks of advertising, more time to build hype, more touch points with the audience. Netflix blew that up overnight. No ads, no drawn out hype cycle, just all the content right now. And audiences loved it. Viewers binged the entire first season in days, some in a single weekend. Entire office conversations were derailed by people asking, how far are you in House of Cards? That question, not did you see it? But how far are you? Was proof that Netflix had just created a new kind of shared experience. Critics took notice, too. House of Cards became the first major streaming series to earn primetime Emmy nominations, breaking into categories traditionally dominated by network and cable tv. David Fincher won best director for the pilot episode in the first month alone. Netflix saw a sharp spike in subscriptions, with surveys showing House of Cards as the primary reason people signed up. More importantly, those subscribers stayed. The binge model hooked them in a way traditional TV couldn't match. Competitors scrambled. HBO began hinting at making its streaming service available without a cable subscription, a move that would have been unthinkable before House of Cards. Amazon pushed forward with its own original programming. Hulu doubled down on exclusives. It was no longer a question of if streaming would overtake traditional television. It was a question of when. Within a year, Netflix followed House of Cards with Orange Is the New, Black, Hemlock Grove, and later Narcos. Each release reinforced the same message. Netflix wasn't a middleman anymore. They were a studio. But House of Cards did more than launch Netflix's originals. It altered how people watch tv. Traditional networks eventually tried their own versions of the binge release, but for most, it felt like an imitation. Netflix had the advantage of global reach, no ad breaks and an algorithm that could instantly feed you the next episode without you lifting a finger. Today, releasing all episodes at once isn't shocking. In 2013, it was revolutionary. That was Netflix's moment. From a DVD rental company to a global entertainment giant, it all traces back to one weekend when House of Cards hit play and the old rules of TV collapsed. It's proof that sometimes the boldest move isn't following the script. It's tearing the script up and writing your own. I'm Brant Menzwar, and this was Just A Moment. Some of the scenes you've heard are dramatizations. While we can't know exactly what was said at the time, these recreations are based on historical research to bring the story to life as accurately as possible. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Just a Moment. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast and tell a friend or two about it to help spread the word so everyone can find a moment that inspires them. Don't forget to leave us a review and check us out on the web@justamomentpodcast.com Just a Moment is produced by Natalie Von Rose and Brandt Menzoir. For more inspiring shows like this, visit surroundpodcasts.com.