Outlander arrives on Netflix; projecting success & the future
Last night, we wrote a piece detailing the season 1 episodes that everyone should absolutely check out and now, we’re here to both rejoice and celebrate in the fact that the streaming provider now has itself its first real collection of episodes in America. It is bizarre in a lot of ways to see so many people celebrating this, largely due to the fact that viewers in other parts of the world have had the show on Netflix for ages.
Yet, it’s pretty clear just from various cast Twitters and social-media messages (see one below via Caitriona Balfe) that it’s certainly a rather-big deal that the show has arrived on Netflix in America. Why is that? Well, regardless of whether or not it’s fair, US viewers tend to be the biggest driving force in the economy of a show, and the studio and the cast likely believe that this is one of the best ways to expand the series’ reach. They are bringing Outlander directly to a group of consumers who may not have ever had it before. While we love Starz and watch it with great regularity, it’s almost easy along the way to forget that this is largely still a premium specialty network and there are only so many people who have it.
Here’s one part of this that is somewhat complicated
While there’s all sorts of news/announcements out there about Outlander being on Netflix, there is one source who remains fairly quiet on the subject — the official account for Outlander through Starz. Why aren’t we seeing more promotion from them? It’s largely because Starz, of course, would rather you just subscribe to them in order to check out the show. They have a rather unusual arrangement when it comes to Outlander arriving on Netflix, given that it seems to be more of a move from studio Sony Pictures TV … though this could ultimately be a case where everyone wins on the other side of it. Outlander arriving on Netflix could eventually benefit Starz if some of the viewers on Netflix realize that they have to wait a while in order to see what’s next.
How long could the wait be? We wouldn’t be surprised of Netflix didn’t get season 3 of Outlander until around the time season 5 airs on Starz — or maybe even after season 5 wraps. We feel like it benefits Starz to have at least two seasons that aren’t on Netflix already, that way they can continue to get viewers coming over from that platform who may be a tad impatient and don’t want to wait too long in order to see them.
One last reminder
The Outlander season 4 DVD/Blu-Ray collection comes out tomorrow! Rest assured, we’ll have more news about that for you within due time, so stay tuned.
Are you planning to re-watch Outlander, or watch for the first time, with it now on Netflix? Be sure to share in the comments.
Photo: Starz