Breaking Bad' And 'Mad Men' Are Way More Popular On Netflix Than Its New Shows Like 'House Of Cards
"House of Cards" accounted for less than 1% of the shows watched by regular Netflix viewers during a week in April, according to a new study by research firm GfK.
Breaking Bad and Mad Men, on the other hand, each got 3% of total viewership. Even "Heroes," a canceled NBC drama and "Family Guy" each got a 2% share.
Granted, viewership for "House of Cards" was likely much higher in February, when it released all of the episodes at once.
There are also fewer episodes of "House of Cards," and not as many people know about it since it's so new. "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" have been around since 2008 and 2007, respectively. They're also both Emmy award-winning television shows.
Netflix would not comment on the accuracy of the report, but said it's pleased with the performance of "House of Cards."
So it's no wonder why it's moving forward with its original programming push. Last week, Netflix released "Orange Is the New Black," a prison comedy show.
Netflix made a big push into original programming when it committed $2 million for two seasons of "House of Cards." It's Netflix's major attempt to compete against other pay-TV services like HBO, Hulu, and Amazon.
But up until now, there has been little evidence as to how successful its efforts have been, given that there aren't any traditional ratings data available for Netflix. Netflix also doesn't disclose its viewership numbers.
Netflix is the largest streaming video service with about 28 million paid customers in the U.S. and 36 million worldwide. Media executives want to know how many people are actually watching their shows so that they know how much to charge. Though, competitors like Amazon and Hulu don't disclose viewership data, either.
With Netflix's earnings next week, analysts will be on the look out for any signs about the performance of "House of Cards" and other new shows.