Before House of Cards was released, producer Dana Brunetti said that Netflix was actually an afterthought. In fact, he said that it was a "B team" that initially met with Netflix while he and House of Cards star Kevin Spacey were in London.

Netflix bought the rights to distribute the show and signed on for two seasons on the spot, without seeing a pilot, and Brunetti had to first convince his colleagues that it would be the best move. Then he realized it was an opportunity to rethink how the show would be released.



"We had sort of kicked around that maybe we’ll do it in chunks. Because a big concern was the way the audience consumes and the water-cooler talk, and whether or not that would really sustain the life of the show. Do you just get a big hit and (then) everyone kind of fizzles away?"

Many questioned the decision to release 13 episodes at once, but Brunetti told Fast Company that it was the best outcome from a creative and business standpoint.

"A lot of people said we were crazy going into Netflix and were like, 'What is this? Why would you do that?'" Brunetti explained. "But there’s a lot of big names now in the industry that come and sit on this couch and ask me, 'How do I get into Netflix?'"