Netflix is shooting “House of Cards” in ultra HD. Can America’s broadband networks keep up?

Netflix’s "House of Cards'" second season is being shot and produced entirely in a new level of resolution called ultra-high-definition, or 4K — a reference to the nearly 4,000 pixels that'll be packed horizontally into the picture. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Netflix will be partnering with Sony and other companies specifically so that new TVs capable of displaying in 4K will have content to show. To stream all those extra pixels, you're going to need a pretty fast Internet connection: about 15 Mbps.

For Hastings, this sounds like no big deal. Technically, you can stream anything so long as you've got a wide enough pipe. And sure, the fact that ultra HD can be compressed into a 15 Mbps stream is impressive in itself. But 15 Mbps is still a pretty hefty load in a country where the average connection speed still lags at 8.7 Mbps. What Netflix thinks is a reasonable hit to bandwidth would be enough to overwhelm the subscriptions of many Americans. Internet providers do offer faster plans for more money; fiber optic connections, for instance, are becoming increasingly popular. But it's not clear Americans are rushing to adopt those services. Chances are the people who plan to watch 4K streams on Netflix will find it easy to pay more for a high-speed broadband connection. But it could take a long time for 4K to become widely adopted by ordinary Americans.