Why Netflix Will Win

This translation was generated automatically.

Maybe the initial selection is poor. Maybe Sky Snap undercuts Netflix on price at launch. Maybe the commercial TV channels will wake up, or Amazon Germany will do something with Prime. None of that matters.

Netflix has taste.

“House of Cards” is obvious: Kevin Spacey in Washington, D.C.—what could go wrong?

But Netflix dares to launch a series like “Lilyhammer” in the US, with 80% of the dialogue in Norwegian and subtitles. A Norwegian mafia series. Let me repeat: a mobster (Steven Van Zandt, from The Sopranos) enters witness protection—in Norway, in Lillehammer. In Norwegian, with subtitles. For the American market, that’s completely crazy, just as the multilingual dialogue in “Inglourious Basterds” is crazy, but Quentin Tarantino’s success and taste make it work.

That taste is what will make Netflix succeed. Good recommendations. Good, tasteful original productions. Good clients on practically every platform. For that, they can charge pretty much any price they want instead of selling themselves off for €4 a month like Sky Snap. Whoever is in charge there understands far more than the “competition”, which only manages to commission bad Silverlight software.

I have to get back to watching Lilyhammer.