You raise a good point. Indeed, Netflix went pilot-less, but they still paid network-level prices to make the show. Essentially, they skipped the pilot and went straight to the series order (and 2 full seasons at that). In some ways this was a riskier move than the network model.
My argument is mainly that Netflix has the tools at its disposal to get smarter about this process. To be fair, I believe a lot of that $100M was a signaling tactic -- both in Hollywood and as consumer-facing PR -- almost as much to do with marketing the fact that Netflix has originals as it had to do with investing in them.
But the investments needn't always be that big up front.
Thanks for the article. Regarding "Netflix went pilot-less". BBC had done a "pilot" for them when they produced the Original HoC in 1990 (and they based in on a book by Michael Dobbs).
The point I am trying to make is that, they got a sense of what the show was going to look like, who it will appeal etc because they had carried the BBC HoC for a while in their inventory. I am assuming, that they had some viewership data from this.
The BBC HoC probably provided a nice reassurance, but there is a pretty big chance the US version won't work. I would imagine HoC is even more problematic given the difference in political systems.
You raise a good point. Indeed, Netflix went pilot-less, but they still paid network-level prices to make the show. Essentially, they skipped the pilot and went straight to the series order (and 2 full seasons at that). In some ways this was a riskier move than the network model.
My argument is mainly that Netflix has the tools at its disposal to get smarter about this process. To be fair, I believe a lot of that $100M was a signaling tactic -- both in Hollywood and as consumer-facing PR -- almost as much to do with marketing the fact that Netflix has originals as it had to do with investing in them.
But the investments needn't always be that big up front.