There’re no breaks on the Netflix train, and the company’s not-so-secret plan to kill traditional television is moving ahead at full speed. The secret behind Netflix’s ridiculous success isn’t much of a secret either: original programming. Thanks to the fact that’s it’s popping out new movies and shows like crazy, Netflix is adding more subscribers every month than it can count, and it plans to release even more in the coming months.
It is April 9 just before midnight in the war room of Netflix’s headquarters here, where the smell of popcorn fills the air and a team of engineers, social media experts and other specialists starts counting down the seconds until the new “Daredevil” superhero series goes live on the streaming service. At the stroke of 12, applause breaks out in the room. Flutes of Champagne are passed around as the Netflix team checks that the series is available for binge watching across devices in more than 50 countries around the world. “Daredevil” is the 17th Netflix original series to make its debut this year, representing a bold bet by the company to significantly increase its investment in exclusive programming. Just three years after Netflix started streaming its first original series, “Lilyhammer,” the company is planning 320 hours of original programming in 2015. That is about three times what it offered last year.
