[fauldsh]

Better Off Ted and Firefly (as some-one mentioned underneath) are perfect examples of shows that would thrive under Netflix. They have such huge appeal to the tech savvy audience who are most likely to adopt Netflix. It wouldn't surprise me if the rights to those shows are owned by big TV companies though, who have little to incentive to sell them on.

[mikeryan]

Firefly (as some-one mentioned underneath) are perfect examples of shows that would thrive under Netflix.

I have to disagree with this, Firefly is not the type of show Netflix should be focusing on. They need shows with low production costs with broad - lowest common denominator appeal. Expensive shows catering to a niche market (which they pretty much already have captured) is not what they're trying to do here.

There's a few ways they can go, sitcoms and short form comedies are going to be much more profitable for them at this point so Better off Ted is a much better fit.

Then there's the Showtime/HBO premium market (which folks are already paying for as a premium service). But even here I think they'd play it safe short term - more Sopranos and True Blood type mass appeal then Boardwalk Empire and The Wire (both are great, but much more focused market).

[JoshTriplett]

> catering to a niche market (which they pretty much already have captured)

Not necessarily. The geek market has little loyalty to Netflix, and would just as easily switch to Amazon Prime or any other streaming service which showed up, especially if it provides better features or selection than Netflix. But if Netflix has shows which won't appear anywhere else...

[marquis]

>Expensive shows catering to a niche market

Like Arrested Development?

[breck]

Interesting. Do you know anything about the old (and predicted) production costs of AD?