Netflix didn't actually "make" House of Cards despite that being the popular public perception. Netflix simply financed the production by buying the streaming rights to all the countries Netflix operated in. TV rights internationally were sold to a patchwork of local TV stations in exchange for exclusivity. Now, Netflix is in those countries, it has to reacquire streaming rights after the exclusivity window has closed.

Even in the US, it seems they only bought the rights to do the first broadcast, since Comcast has bought the rights to do the re-runs: http://www.wired.com/2014/03/comcast-bites-netflix-snagging-...

It's actually not Netflix making the series directly; it's being made by a separate company and Netflix is paying for US rights.

Sony has the international rights, if I am not mistaken, and they sold it to different companies across the globe, that now want exclusive rights, so Netflix doesn't eat from their table.

Perhaps global rights were sold or something like that?