If coffee and beverage giant Starbucks (SBUX) emails you about one of your all-time favorite Netflix (NFLX) shows and then you discover that the streaming giant and Starbucks have a book club together, things could feel a little strange, at first.
After all, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and a good book is one of those old and familiar simple pleasures that even the internet cannot ruin.
Streaming service Netflix which has made binge-viewing mainstream is part of a social series, called "But Have You Read the Book?" in partnership with Starbucks.
In October 2021, Starbucks and Netflix first announced this exclusive alliance as part of the Netflix Book Club, "a one-of-a-kind club for literary and entertainment lovers to hear about their new favorite books, films, and series adaptations first," the two companies had said.
Netflix says its version of a literary circle, specifically seeks to provide customers with the "depth" they’ve been looking for.
"We’re choosing books and stories that bring the heat, the diversity, the romance, the drama, and the learnings," according to its official website.
Netflix shows like "Orange Is The New Black," "Virgin River," "Sweet Magnolias," "Unorthodox," and "Firefly Lane" among others are all book adaptations. But only "Orange Is The New Black" and "Bridgerton" are among the platform's breakout series in this lineup.
What is the Netflix Book Club?
If five months after its launch, you have still never heard of this book club don't worry you're not alone. This is probably one of those promotional campaigns that has clearly not been promoted enough.
"I’m so excited to bring you an ever-evolving, curated collection of newly adapted books that you will then get to watch on Netflix soon after," wrote three-time Emmy Award winner and star of 'Orange Is the New Black' Uzo Aduba in her welcome note to the club.
Twitter users are also wondering what this book club is about and how can they get in, in tweets as recent as March 23, 2022.
Bridgerton's Popularity in Numbers
The March edition of this book club, first launched in October, is about Julia Quinn’s novel The Viscount Who Loved Me, the inspiration behind the second season of "Bridgerton" which drops on Netflix on March 25.
Netflix recently referred to Bridgerton as its "known big titles" during the company's latest earnings call in January.
The wildly popular period drama from producer Shonda Rhimes was watched by 82 million in its first four weeks after the release of season one, the company had said in January last year.
Netflix Co-Chief Creative Ted Sarandos also talked about creating live experiences around the show.
"We certainly have things that are in their early stages of becoming a franchise like "Bridgerton," which we launched our second season of, our second most popular show ever in Q1. And we're also -- this year, you'll see an origin story on "Queen Charlotte" and this incredible "Bridgerton" live experiences around the country and around the world that fans will flock to and flood their social media feeds with," Sarandos said.
"Hollywood doesn't generally turn to romance novels for source material," said the author of the eight-book series Julia Quinn in a chat with the series host, three-time Emmy Award winner Aduba.
The first season from late 2020 still ranks as the company’s most popular English-language TV series ever in terms of hours viewed in the first 28 days.
In Netflix's second season of Bridgerton, one of the main characters of the show is part of an Indian family [Simone Ashley is Kate Sharma] that travels from Bombay (now Mumbai) to London, a departure from the book, where the lead characters are both based in England.
"I love the idea of as many people as possible being able to see themselves in the story and everyone deserves a happy ending," Quinn added.
Netflix added 8.2 million global paid net subscribers in the fourth quarter taking its total to 222 million behind rival Disney's (DIS) streaming service Disney+ that added 11.8 million during the three months ended January 1 to clock a total of 130 million paid subscribers at the end of 2021 and
It remains to be seen if such social partnerships can translate into higher subscriptions for Netflix which faces a much tougher investor sentiment in the markets these days about its subscriber growth numbers and targets and its potential to meet those.
