During yesterday evening’s Golden Globes, something very strange happened after Kevin Spacey accepted his award for Best Actor in a TV Drama. As soon as NBC went to commercial break, a highly anticipated trailer for the third season of “House of Cards,” the Netflix original series that Spacey stars in, came on.

Moments later, Netflix’s YouTube channel published that same trailer, which took off across the Internet, piling up more than half a million views by the following morning; as of publication, that total had risen above 700,000.

Conspiracy theories have been built out of far less, but sources tell International Business Times it probably just happened by chance. A NBC spokesperson said the network has no advance knowledge of who will win at the Golden Globes, which would make it impossible for the network to sell that kind of opportunity.

The spokesperson added that Netflix did not know that the ad it purchased would run following Kevin Spacey’s acceptance of his award. “Netflix did not know when purchased spot was going to air,” the spokesperson said.

Though in some cases television shows offer advertisers the chance to buy ads that will run at precise junctures of a broadcast, no such opportunity was available during the Golden Globes.

The third season of "House of Cards" will be released on Feb. 27.

RELATED STORIES
Netflix