Netflix CEO Reed Hastings noted on Facebook that his company served up some four billion hours of streaming video in 2013 – and we're not even done with April. He also plugged an upcoming Netflix original series named Hemlock Grove, a horror-genre show directed by Eli Roth.
With over one billion hours of content consumed per month, there is little question Netflix is a huge operation, but how does it stack up against "real" television networks? One analyst, Richard Greenfield, decided to crunch the numbers.
Greenfield noted there are 28.1 million Netflix subscribers in the U.S. who are consuming an average of 43 hours of content per month. That means the average Netflix subscriber puts their $7.99 per month membership to good use, watching nearly 1.5 hours of content per day.
With that in mind, he estimates that if Netflix were a cable TV network, it would likely be the most watched network.
"We believe Netflix streaming per sub/day is now over 87 [minutes] and, in turn, Netflix is now likely the most watched cable network, essentially in-line with the Disney Channel," Greenfield estimated on the BTIG blog (registration required).
Last summer, Netflix subscribers were watching about 79 minutes per day. The new figure of 87 minutes indicates subscribers are inserting more Netflix into their daily entertainment diets.
Netflix's success has been partly attributed to its heavy investment in developing original content. House of Cards appears to be the poster child of Netflix originals, becoming a wildly popular show – perhaps even the most popular show for a brief period of time. At least, that's what IMDb's algorithmic analysis indicated in February.
Of course, Netflix doesn't seem to put much stock in Nielsen-style viewership numbers. Since the company relies on subscriptions, not advertisements, to generate revenue, Netflix has their own criteria to determine the successful content.