Netflix at TCA: "Jessica Jones," "Daredevil" and More

Following much briefer but no less effective presentations earlier in the Winter 2016 Television Critics Association tour by Hulu and Amazon Netflix stepped up in a big way on Sunday by putting together a daylong presentation filled with compelling panels for current and returning series amp8220Marvel39s Daredevilamp8221 pictured below amp8220Marvel39s Jessica Jonesamp8221 amp8220Orange is the New Blackamp8221 amp8220Master of Noneamp8221 amp8220Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtamp8221 amp8220Grace and Frankieamp8221 amp8220Narcosamp8221 and amp8220Making a Murdereramp8221 and upcoming shows amp8220The Ranchamp8221 a sitcom with Ashton Kutcher and Debra Winger amp8220Degrassi Next Classamp8221 a continuation of the longrunning Canadian teen series and amp8220Loveamp8221 another of those contemporaryamp160romcoms that are popping up on streaming services like acne on an adolescent plus previews of several standup specialsAny doubts about the power of streaming services and the talent they attract was eradicated by the caliber of acting talent seen wandering about the Langham Huntington Hotel the location of this tour including Jane Fonda Lily Tomlin Ashton Kutcher Sam Elliott Debra Winger Aziz Ansari Tina Fey Jane Krakowski Krysten Ritter pictured at top with her quotJessica Jonesquot costar Mike Colter Charlie Cox Laverne Cox Candace Cameron Bure and Judd Apatow Previously James Franco JJ Abrams Chris Cooper Josh Duhamel and TR Knight were here for Huluamp8217s upcoming miniseries amp8220112263amp8221 and Aaron Paul and Hugh Dancy came by to promote its drama series amp8220The Pathamp8221 Amazon brought in Steve Zahn and Ben Chaplin for its amp8220bluesky adventureamp8221 amp8220Mad Dogsamp8221 and Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan of amp8220Catastropheamp8221 among others Amazon was riding high that day having received Golden Globe Awards the night before for its comedy series amp8220Mozart in the Jungleamp8221 and the star of that series Gael Garcia BernalBut what really stood out about Netflixamp8217s presentation at TCA was the amount of hotel real estate it occupied throughout the day Deep details wouldnamp8217t mean much to anyone not familiar with the labyrinthine Langham Hotel Iamp8217ll just note that the service occupied all three cavernous ballrooms the expansive lounge area where many networks hostamp160parties and the two enormous hallways on either side of the central courtyard plus a number of smaller areas In the hallways were floortoceiling glass cases housing costumes and clothing worn by characters in several Netflix series Thatamp8217s Daredevilamp8217s costume in the photo at rightOf course the real news of the day came during the opening session with Netflix39s Chief Content Officeramp160Ted Sarandos who told reporters Netflix this year expects to amp8220offer our members in 190 countries more than 600 hours of new high quality original content from some of the worldamp8217s most talented people Weamp8217re creating an incredible range of series and films entertainment designed to appeal to people of every age and of every taste and of different culturesamp8221Then Sarandos cut to the chase amp8220Because weamp8217re not courting advertisers because weamp8217re not programming to a single demographicamp160and because we are global and on demand we have the unique and expansive opportunity to tell great storiesamp8221 he saidOn the subject of Peak TV Sarandos pictured belowamp160remarked amp8220We donamp8217t think thereamp8217s too much TV and if there is too much TV someone else is going to have to slow down because we have big plans for 2016 and beyond People want choice in voices in attitudes in points of view and in genres from standup comedy to Oscar nominated documentaries and from kidsamp8217 shows to very sophisticated dramas Our members come to us looking for something great to watch and personalization allows us to give them the exact title that theyamp8217re going to love the most It may be on the first day of availability or it might be months later or even years later The entire household benefits from this personalization because each family member can create and enjoy their own Netflix by setting up their own profiles Itamp8217s our job as a content team to make sure we have the right stories to meet their desiresamp8220We are running a global network one that is not easily comparable either in business or in cultural terms to anything thatamp8217s come beforeamp8221It wouldnamp8217t be a press conference with Sarandos without questions about Netflixamp8217s ratings which the streamer chooses not to reveal His answers were largely similar to those that have come before amp82201849 viewing is so insignificant to us that I canamp8217t even tell you how many 1849 yearold members we haveamp8221 he said amp8220We donamp8217t track it Itamp8217s an advertising driven demographic that means nothing to Netflixamp8220You have to understand the difference between Netflix and all linear television networks that report their ratings is those sample sets donamp8217t give you a lot of information when people are watching literally thousands of different shows all the time in all different countries So when youamp8217re trying to measure our ratings as a measurement of our success youamp8217d have to remember that in somewhere in the world every second of every day someone is pushing play to start a Netflix original show Thatamp8217s a factamp8221Asked about producing programming for other countries Sarandos noted amp8220Weamp8217ve had millions of people watch French language television on Netflix which gives us great confidence to produce French language television for France because we believe weamp8217ll be able to get millions of people to watch it outside of France This enables us to put production value behind an hour of French television like French people have never seen beforeamp8220We are also producing original shows right now in Brazil that we are really excited about A second local language show in Mexico is about to go into production We donamp8217t think about it as domestic or international We think of it all as different flavors of global televisionamp8221

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Netflix at TCA: "Jessica Jones," "Daredevil" and More

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Ed Martin

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 6) - By Carl Mayer

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Netflix at TCA: "Jessica Jones," "Daredevil" and More

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