Netflix is stepping up to the plate to take on HBO and Hulu by creating their own original programming.
Lilyhammer, Netflix’s first original show, will air eight hour long episodes in its first season and will premiere on Netflix on Monday, February 6.
A description of the show was released in Netflix’s press release:
“Lilyhammer,” follows New York mobster Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano as he enters the federal witness protection program after ratting on his boss. A sports fan, Frank wants to make his new life in Lillehammer, the Norwegian town that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics – or as he calls it “Lilyhammer.” Frank has visions of a paradise of “clean air, fresh white snow and gorgeous broads” far away from the temptations of the Big Apple and from mob hit men. Reality, of course, turns out to be spectacularly different.
CEO Reed Hastings announced Netflix’s future in the streaming of both shows from other networks and the creation of original programming in a statement to company investors:
In television…the networks (ABC, FX, etc.) have long relied upon exclusive content to differentiate among themselves. As video moves online, so too has this practice of exclusive content. Hbo has an exclusive license to recent Universal movies tha tincludes its online HBO GO, for example. Netflix has signed exclusive licenses for DreamWorks Animation, for Relativity, and others. In episodic television, exclusives are also the norm. Netflix doesn’t license “deadwood” from HBO because they see strategic value in keeping it exclusive. Netflix licenses “Mad Men” and “House of Cards” exclusively for much the same reason.
Check out the trailer for Lilyhammer below!
