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Netflix takes credit for ‘Mad Men’ audience boost of 1 million

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BOSTON -- The ratings gains that AMC’s drama “Mad Men” is enjoying in its fifth season are directly tied to the popularity of the show on Netflix, a top executive at that company said.

“We brought maybe a million viewers to AMC,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told attendees of the annual National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention here. The season premiere of “Mad Men” drew 3.5 million viewers, which was a new record for the show. Last season, “Mad Men” averaged 2.3 million viewers.

Netflix has found great success lately as a home for repeats of serialized dramas such as “Mad Men” as many viewers have taken to binging on such shows and watching multiple episodes in one sitting.

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However, the challenge for TV networks is knowing which shows may resonate with viewers and find traction on Netflix down the road even if their initial ratings are soft. A network has to be confident to keep a low-rated show around hoping a Netflix-type service will bring in new viewers that will then eventually go to the primary source for more episodes.

Netflix is also making a big push into original programming. The company is producing a political drama, starring Kevin Spacey, called “House of Cards” -- a follow-up to its first foray into original content, the Steven Van Zandt gangster drama “Lillyhammer.”

Sarandos said one of the motivations behind Netflix’s move into making its own content was because pay-TV channels HBO, Starz and Showtime are not willing to sell them repeats of their shows like”Homeland,””Game of Thrones” or”Boss.”

Unlike the commercial broadcast and cable channels, HBO, Showtime and Starz -- all of which require consumers to subscribe separately to them -- view Netflix as more of a direct competitor.

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