I subscribe to Netflix, and I use it once a week. Typically my wife and I will watch an episode of Blacklist, followed by Longmire. For Blacklist, we’re just getting through the second season, which is all that’s available on Netflix so far. As for Longmire, we’re watching new episodes.

What makes this interesting is not our viewing habits, but the fact that new episodes of Longmire exist.

The cable company that originally put the show on the air cancelled it. Netflix scooped up the rights to it, produced new episodes, and instantly had viewers like me.

Clearly the company can make a profit where the cable company couldn’t. In this sense, Netflix is disrupting the media business just as Apple did with the iPod and iTunes. They are building a business off of the long tail. Instead of offering a small number of products that do exceptionally well, they offer a multitude of products, which together get enough views to make the business successful in a way cable companies aren’t.

As a point of disclosure, I currently own Netflix in my Triple Play Strategy. It was rocky for a bit there, but there’s no question that the company clearly fits one of my main criteria. It falls into the category of what people will do in the months and years ahead.

Without getting deep into high school statistics, the long tail refers to data points that occur far away from the average.

How many Longmire viewers must Netflix have for the series to be profitable? I don’t know, but because they simply stream the service, and can put all episodes up at once, they can make money with a lot fewer viewers than cable! This allows the company to offer many more shows, which draws a wide audience of viewers who can seek out the content they want.

Think about the lack of competition for airtime.

On cable, there’s just one slot open every Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. If the show in that slot isn’t drawing viewers, it must be replaced.