Could “old fashioned” TV companies start making shows specifically for Netflix?
If yet more proof was needed that TV as we know it is dead, the boss of the CBS Network in the US has been talking about how the network could produce brand new shows directly for streaming platforms like Netflix.
According to Recode, CEO Les Moonves said that the company “will be producing more and more shows for more and more outlets, including major streaming companies and other emerging distributors”. Similarly responding to a question from an investor, he apparently teased that “shortly, you’re going to hear us being in business with some of the [subscription video-on-demand services] with original program[s]”.
Whilst this isn’t a huge shock given the success of the likes of House of Cards, and even CBS’s own Extant which in the UK is available exclusively via Amazon Instant Video it is interesting to see that it isn’t just any old studios making stuff, but studios owned by the big American TV networks, which you would expect to be most reluctant to embrace emerging platforms.
The TV industry has already been shaken up in a big way, especially in the US – and symbolic moves like this could lead to Netflix being perceived as just as big a player as the likes of CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox.
