More than half of Netflix's streams are TV shows, not films

Netflix's background in DVDs-by-mail means it is often seen as mainly a movies service. However, the balance has tipped more towards TV shows in its streaming operation.

"50% and sometimes 60% of viewing is TV episodes now," said Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos, during a joint keynote at the MIPCOM conference in Cannes with Miramax CEO Mike Lang.

This is the key factor behind Netflix's high-profile deal to stream episodes of Mad Men, and also its decision to ink an exclusive deal for David Fincher's new remake of BBC drama House of Cards.

"That can be mis-perceived as Netflix giving up on movies, which it's not. It's just consumers saying what they want," said Sarandos during his keynote. He also announced a new exclusive deal for a TV series called Lilyhammer, starring actor/musician Steven Van Zandt.

Sarandos said that Netflix intends to use its recommendation algorithms to seed the show with users who are most likely to enjoy it. "We really think we can use these same algorithms to launch a show very rapidly, and put it in the hands of the people who'll love it the most," he said, citing the previous example of Starz' Spartacus show being promoted to Netflix users who had enjoyed the film 300.