Tag Archives: Netflix

AMC Says Netflix Boosted Walking Dead Ratings

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Many television channels view timeshifting services as bad for business, but not AMC. The network reported sizable ratings boosts for “The Walking Dead” and “Mad Men” due in part, it says, to Netflix and other online streaming services.

Last year, Netflix purchased the exclusive rights to stream every back episode of AMC shows “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “The Walking Dead.”

According to DigitalTrends, AMC reported that its revenues were up about 40 percent in the first three months of 2012. Profits were up 20 percent thanks to strong ratings and performance of the new season “The Walking Dead.”

They haven’t been shy about vocalizing the role of Netflix in their ratings. Part of the reason for the network’s success, according to CEO Josh Sapan, was the working with Netflix and Amazon.

2012 got off to a strong start for AMC Networks, with double digit increases in net revenues, AOCF and operating income,” Sapan said. “Continued viewer enthusiasm for our programming resulted in ratings gains for our national networks, most notably AMC’s The Walking Dead, which ended its second season with nine million total viewers, an increase of 50 percent over last season’s finale. The series reigns as the highest-rated scripted drama in basic cable history in advertiser’s key demos. The fifth season of AMC’s Mad Men currently ranks as the most watched season ever of the series, outperforming the prior season by double-digits. These successes underscore the strength of our original programming strategy, which continues to drive audience and advertiser demand for our networks.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sapan later went into more detail during a conference call,

New viewers are finding these shows on a digital service, catching up on prior seasons and then tuning into AMC for new seasons in greater numbers, many for the first time.”

AMC isn’t without its problems though. Dish Networks, a satellite TV operator, has decided to drop the channel from its lineup.  Dish cited low ratings as the reason for the cut, but said it was the result of ongoing litigation between the two companies over its participation in Voom HD, a collection of HD channels that Dish decided to pick up, but dropped in 2008.

However, “The Walking Dead” continues to do extremely well on the channel. After premiering in October 2010, it has broken several ratings records and continues to be well received by critics and viewers. It has also received many award nominations, including a Writers Guild of America Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Television Series Drama. The series has also attained strong Nielsen ratings, beating various records for a cable series, including receiving 9 million viewers for its season two finale to become the most-watched basic cable drama telecast in history.

Netflix To Premiere Exclusive Horror Series Hemlock Grove

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Horror connoisseurs Eli Roth and Brian McGreevy are creating a new series to be released exclusively on Netflix Instant. The new series, “Hemlock Grove” will premiere an entire 13-episode season for viewers to watch at their own convenience, or marathon on Netflix Streaming.

Due to the success of horror-based shows “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story”, other filmmakers are looking to capitalize on the genre’s budding mainstream popularity.

While some of these contenders (among them a revamp of “The Munsters”) are likely just jumping on the bandwagon, Roth and McGreevy hope to have created something unique.

Roth recently did an interview with the website, ShockTillYouDrop regarding his new television project:

If you do something well and you have an original take on something, then absolutely go for it.”

The series, based on McGreevy’s novel of the same name, has a dark and mysterious premise. The official synopsis describes it as:

The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren’t sure if it’s a man they should be looking for. Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where, if rumors are true, biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable high school classmates that he’s a werewolf. Or perhaps it’s Roman, the son of the late JR Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly control freak of a mother, Olivia.

Roth went on to tell the site that the series will deal with the supernatural.

It’s actually a drama set in this world and has the themes of vampires and werewolves and monster mythology, Frankenstein mythology. It’s this new biotech world.”

Fans of Roth’s blood-and-guts style of direction need not worry about the show being toned down for television. Being a Netflix Original, Roth won’t have to worry about advertisers or ratings boards. He’ll be able to focus on content without having to censor himself, allowing for more mature subject matter.

That’s what I liked about it. That we could do something that was adult subject matter, and if we want to go dark and violent, we can.  If we want to have the language, we can. We have the freedom to do something like it’s on cable… to go as R-rated or as NC-17 as we want. Where the teenagers could really behave like modern adolescents.”

While gore and shock value are crucial elements in Roth’s films, he said the story will be his top priority with “Hemlock Grove.”

We don’t want to make a show where you watch one episode and go, ‘Oh God, why did I see that?’ Roth said. “I want people to watch the show and go, ‘Holy fuck, I can’t believe what they did on Hemlock Grove. Did you see that transformation scene? That was awesome, I want to watch more.’ I think there’s a fine line between kicking an audience’s ass and making them feel like they’ve been kicked in the balls.”

On March 21, 2012, Netflix announced that “Hemlock Grove” will be coming to the instant streaming collection in early 2013.