House of Cards, the first original TV series from streaming service Netflix, has received nine nominations for Emmy Awards, including best drama.
The nominations mark the first time an Internet streaming service has ever received award recognition.
Netflix is the first ever streaming service to receive Emmy award nominations, meaning it and other internet streaming services have the potential to compete with the major network broadcasters at a top level.
The Netflix original series House of Cards achieved nine Emmy nominations, but in total Netflix received 14.
Subscription channels and now Netflix dominated the Emmy nominations for this year, so much so that traditional broadcast channels didn’t get a look in for the second year running.
“It’s a reflection of how consumers are now watching television”, said Bruce Rosenblum, President of Television and Digital for Legendary Entertainment and Chairman of the Academy. “The more that the teams at Netflix and Yahoo and Amazon and Hulu develop and produce great episodic storytelling, that’s what will motivate more people to produce for those platforms.”
The series itself is up for best drama while Kevin Spacey, the star of House of Cards, has been nominated for Best Actor. Robin Wright, who plays Spacey’s wife, earned a Best Actress nomination and David Fincher is up for Best Director in a drama series.
“If there ever was a perception that Netflix was handicapped in gaining critical recognition for its programs, that ended today,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix CEO. “The best writers, directors and actors know they can participate in the highest quality programs on Netflix and still be recognised by their peers.”
Netflix’s other nominations are for Arrested Development, with Jason Bateman up for Lead Actor in a comedy series and the other nominations in music and picture editing.
The fourth season of Arrested Development was shown exclusively on Netflix, airing for the first time on May 26. All fifteen episodes of the long awaited fourth series were made available at once, which meant many engaged in extensive amounts of binge viewing.
“It no longer matters how a show is delivered, whether it’s over time on a network or all at once on Netflix,” added Sarandos.
Next, read our pick of the best TVs of 2013 .
