I guess there is another, very big reason:
The Non-US markets.
The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that very few US Americans know about - rights licensing is far worse.
Selling content overseas is a huge business, which means a giant time delay until something makes it to, say, Germany (even if not dubbed). Which worked in the past, but the Internet is forcing real time usage, see the piracy numbers worldwide for something like Game of Thrones (HBO, I know). There is practically no legal way to easily consume something like GoT the same time as it is aired in the US.
Not so for Netflix' own content.
House of Cards, Daredevil - all already available globally.
The world is a big place and Netflix is going after it, the US is just one market.
That HBO/Apple TV deal better be global soon.
The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that very few US Americans know about - rights licensing is far worse.
Selling content overseas is a huge business, which means a giant time delay until something makes it to, say, Germany (even if not dubbed). Which worked in the past, but the Internet is forcing real time usage, see the piracy numbers worldwide for something like Game of Thrones (HBO, I know). There is practically no legal way to easily consume something like GoT the same time as it is aired in the US.
Not so for Netflix' own content.
House of Cards, Daredevil - all already available globally.
The world is a big place and Netflix is going after it, the US is just one market.
That HBO/Apple TV deal better be global soon.