The Netflix International Analysis

It's undisputable that Dominion has an extremely passionate (and deserved) following, even three months after cancellation.  Ever since Syfy announced it was not renewing Dominion, the fan base has kept the flame lit hoping that the show would be picked up.

The major focus of attention has been Netflix, as it has been in the eye of the public for its increasing velocity of expenditures on original programming.

A word on "Original Programming." Many fans have asked if a show is original programming if it is programming picked up from another source. Yes. Netflix considers programming it funds and arranges for to be "original programming."

There is valid debate over whether there was sufficient domestic viewers to warrant Netflix acquiring Dominion. As passionate as the current fanbase is, Netflix is a business. Accordingly, it is going to operate on knowns, not desires. One "known" is that the

Dominion Nielsen ratings were suppressed in 2015. This was caused by a combination of seasonal scheduling, timing and pairing, as well as lack of publicity support (lack of effort as simple as marathons and full presences at conventions, as well as advertising on multiple platforms). It appears to be a safe bet that Dominion could have achieved close to its 2014 ratings had it not been mishandled.

But, in reality, it's possible that Dominion's full domestic ratings potential might not have been enough to allow it to be picked up by another source.  After all, there have been shows with much better ratings which were not picked up by any of the cable networks who have picked up cancelled or discontinued shows or the streaming programmers (Netflix, Hulu or Amazon).

However, there's a new player in town, and that player is Netflix's International presence which has DRAMATICALLY INCREASED (#NetflixEverywhere). Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, made a surprise announcement at CES, that effective IMMEDIATELY, it was expanding into 130 new countries.  This was positive news for fans hoping that Netflix would pick up Dominion, because as is evident to the TWITTER and FACEBOOK fanbase, there are a LOT of international Dominion fans. Although controversial, clearly Dominion had a passionate following of international viewers who pirated the show.

As discussed in this very interesting Motley Fool investment article, Netflix will curate content BY REGION. This means that when viewed as a pool, not all Netflix viewers will see all Netflix original programming. Factors impacting what content is available include LICENSING, as well as consideration of what programming is desired in each country. An advantage that Dominion offers to Netflix is that there is already an established appreciation by a very wide variety of viewers in multiple regions for the show. (An informal statistic is that in Brazil, in the Sao Paulo region, there were 250K viewers alone and that was with the show airing very late at night).

It is impossible that Netflix is unaware of the desire of fans for it to pick up Dominion considering the constant attention spent on calling, visiting online, writing and using social media to bring attention to the fate of Dominion. Hopefully, the company has been considering the "bigger international picture" in its consideration of whether or not to acquire Dominion as original programming.  This would be attractive not only to domestic fans, but to a very wide international audience, particularly with proper publicity.  Fans everywhere will cheer (and subscribe)!