Casey Newton, writing for The Verge:

Netflix is testing a button that lets you skip the opening credits on some television shows, the company said. This week some Twitter users spotted a “skip intro” button that appears when you hover over the title sequence for shows including Netflix originals House of Cards and Iron Fist, and Mad Men and The Office (third-party shows). The button works both with shows that begin with the title sequence and those that include one after a cold open. […]

Skipping the opening credits is a long-standing request of many Netflix users, who are prone to binge-watching shows and would rather not watch the House of Cards smooth jazz time lapse eight times in a single day. And if episodes are auto-playing for you, in many cases the opening sequence will be skipped automatically.

This is an incredible feature that I expect to become table stakes amongst streaming video services. In the age of on-demand video playback, show intros are irrelevant past the first episode. But I’d like to see Netflix take this a step further by letting you skip the previews and recaps that were originally designed to bookend commercial breaks. They’re irritating and unnecessary.