Netflix, which has become a US video giant streaming movies and TV shows, is getting behind a series of its own starring Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey as an ambitious US politician.

David Fincher, who was nominated for an Oscar for his Facebook movie The Social Network, will be the executive producer of the political thriller House of Cards, Netflix’s first foray into original programming. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a blog post that the series will be available in late 2012 to Netflix members in the US and Canada.

“We’ve committed to at least 26 episodes of the serialised drama,” he said, which will be “the first exclusive TV series to originate on Netflix... We think House of Cards will become a big hit among Netflix members...,” he said.

Mr Sarandos said the series is based on a BBC mini-series from the 1990s that “explores the ruthless underside of British politics at the end of the Thatcher era” and has been reset in the US.

Market research firm NPD said last week that Netflix enjoys a commanding 61 per cent share of the US market for digital movies streamed into the home or downloaded over the internet.

Entertainment and cable giant Comcast was next with an eight per cent share of the market followed by DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Apple with four per cent each, NPD said.