NATPE News: Netflix launching two more original dramas

Netflix is launching two more original drama series. Speaking at NATPE, Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos also said that it would make the full season of another of its original dramas, Lilyhammer, available at once, allowing customers access to the full season from launch date.

Netflix’s confirmed originals are Lilyhammer, David Fincher-directed House of Cards and a new season of comedy series Arrested Development.

“We have two other pretty ambitious shows in the works and by mid-2013 we will have five original series on Netflix,” Sarandos said.

Lionsgate’s president, worldwide TV, Jim Packer, confirmed to TBIvision that it is developing one of the new dramas, Orange Is The New Black, a comedy from Jenji Kohan (Weeds) based upon the Piper Kerman memoir Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison.

Netflix is keeping the other new project under wraps.

Sarandos said that Netflix will experiment with different ways of making its own content available to subs. “We will test ways of releasing series, but it won’t be one episode a week. I like the new [network] fall shows, but I don’t want to wait a week to see a new episode – it’s more frustrating than exciting. We need to find the right balance.”

Meanwhile, speaking to TBIvision, Sarandos would not be drawn on specific subscriber targets for its recently-launched streaming service in the UK, but suggested it could surpass the numbers recorded in Canada, where it also has a service. “In Canada we got a million in a year – and the UK is a bigger market,” Sarandos said.

Sarandos added that comparisons could not be made between its service in the UK and that of Amazon backed Lovefilm. “Lovefilm is a delivery service that just started streaming,” he said.