Reporters, viewers begin journey with Netflix’s “House of Cards”

Netflix unleashed the entire first season of its newest original series, “House of Cards,” on Friday, all 13 episodes. The bold move could pay off if Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings has made the right calculations about cost savings.

“Traditional channels must aggregate a large audience at a given time of day and hope the show programmed will actually attract enough viewers despite this constraint,” he explained in his letter to shareholders last week when the company reported fourth-quarter results. “With Netflix, members can enjoy a show anytime, and over time, we can effectively put the right show in front of members based on their viewing habits. Thus we can spend less on marketing while generating higher viewership.”