Heh, probably not the best example of cheap TV. $3.8m wouldn't even pay for a single House of Cards episode.[1]
But it still works as a good example of the economics:
"With Netflix spending a reported $100 million to produce two 13-episode seasons of House of Cards, they need 520,834 people to sign up for a $7.99 subscription for two years to break even. ... That sounds daunting, but at the moment, Netflix has 33.3 million subscribers, so this is an increase of less than 10 percent on their current customer base."[2]
But it still works as a good example of the economics: "With Netflix spending a reported $100 million to produce two 13-episode seasons of House of Cards, they need 520,834 people to sign up for a $7.99 subscription for two years to break even. ... That sounds daunting, but at the moment, Netflix has 33.3 million subscribers, so this is an increase of less than 10 percent on their current customer base."[2]
[1] http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/caa-agent-discloses-net... [2] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/econom...