Home-grown TV dramas such as RTÉ's Charlie and TV3's Red Rock may have helped us through the January blues, but those enduring House of Cards cold turkey will be counting down the days till season three is released on Netflix at the end of February.
Some dyed-in-the-wool box set fans may even consider signing up to the content-streaming company for the first time in order to get their Frank Underwood fix straight away rather than waiting for the DVD release. But it may take more than a Cards boost for Netflix to climb back onto its pedestal and regain its status as a stock market darling.
The company, which started out as a DVD mail-order firm, is due to release its fourth quarter results and business outlook tomorrow. The internet TV network has already dampened expectations for earnings figures, flagging last autumn that they will be well below analyst forecasts. Traders will be watching closely to see if Netflix managed to meet its forecast of 4 million new streaming subscribers for the quarter.
Disappointing performance
The company saw its share price tumble more than 25 per cent in the aftermath of its third-quarter results when numbers showed that in the three months to the end of September, it had signed 3.02 million new streaming customers globally, well shy of the projected 3.69 million.
This disappointing performance was blamed on the introduction of slightly higher prices. Netflix, which marketeers like to describe as a “disruptive innovator”, is in some ways a victim of its own success, with competitors trying to elbow in on its ground-breaking internet TV patch. It now faces threats on several fronts.
Time Warner's HBO announced last year it will offer a streaming service in 2015 that will not require a pay TV subscription. And closer to home, UPC will also be putting it up to Netflix with the launch of its own demand streaming service, "My Prime", in Ireland in February. Ah, but will they be able to come up with original programming as addictive as House of Cards or Orange is the New Black?