<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Janko Roettgers]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[http://search.gigaom.com/author/jankor/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[<em>House of Cards</em> season 3 debut causes traffic and Twitter spikes]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Netflix still isn&#8217;t releasing any ratings for season 3 of <em>House of Cards</em>, which premiered on the service last Friday, but there are some indicators suggesting that the show is doing pretty well: Traffic management specialist <a href="http://www.internetphenomena.com/2015/03/house-of-cards-season-3-premiere-weekend/">Sandvine reported this week</a> that the Netflix traffic of one unnamed U.S. ISP grew substantially over the past weekend (hat tip to <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/House-Of-Cards-Triggers-Netflix-Traffic-Surge-132855">DSL Reports</a>).</p>
<p>On Friday and Saturday night, that ISP saw 10 to 15 percent more <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/netflix/">Netflix</a> traffic than on the preceding weekend. And on Sunday night, traffic was even up 30 to 35 percent, compared to a week ago.</p>
<p><a href="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/house-of-cards-traffic-comparison-1024x503.jpg?quality=80&strip=all"><img  src="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/house-of-cards-traffic-comparison-1024x503.jpg?quality=80&#038;strip=all&#038;w=804&#038;h=395" alt="House-of-Cards-Traffic-Comparison-1024x503" width="804" height="395" class=" aligncenter" /></a></p>
<p>Sandvine Media and Industry Relations Manager Dan Deeth is quick to point out that this doesn&#8217;t translate into ratings. The company only sees what kind of traffic goes over a network, not which shows or movies Netflix subscribers are watching. But it&#8217;s very likely that the premiere of House of Cards had something to do with the spike.</p>
<p>Netflix itself <a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/02/12/netflix-ratings-big-data-original-content/">has never released ratings</a> for any of its shows, with executives arguing that ratings simply don&#8217;t matter much to a subscription business. But the company did send over some data this week that suggests that the new season of House of Cards did generate some buzz: People tweeted 648,374 times about the show during its premiere weekend, <a href="https://twitter.com/HouseofCards/status/573264634410631168">according to Netflix</a>. And that buzz was almost global, as the top ten cities tweeting about the show included five from outside of the U.S.</p>
<p><a href="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/house-of-cards-cities.jpg?quality=80&strip=all"><img  src="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/house-of-cards-cities.jpg?quality=80&#038;strip=all&#038;w=804" alt="house-of-cards-cities"   class="size-full wp-image-919123 aligncenter" /></a></p>
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