(Above: Highlights of Kevin Spacey’s keynote address at the Edinburgh Television Festival)
Since 2006, political drama junkies have been relegated to watching old reruns of The West Wing to get their fix. That is, until Kevin Spacey delivered the surprise hit of 2013 with his Netflix original series, House of Cards.
House of Cards debuted on Feb. 1. But rather than releasing one episode a week, the typical release strategy for a television series, Netflix released all 13 episodes at once so viewers could watch the show at their leisure, on the device of their choosing.
Want to watch all 13 episodes in a row on your laptop while devouring four gallons on Blue Bell ice cream? Fine. Want to watch one episode per day during your lunch break on your iPad? Ok. Want to host a bi-weekly House of Cards party during which you pile all of your friends in front of your 80-inch LED TV? That’ll work too.
Game changer.
And a massive wakeup call to a television industry laboring to avoid following in the footsteps of the music industry, which struggled desperately to survive in an era of widespread piracy.
Spacey delivered what he believes is the solution during a speech given over the weekend at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
In short, Spacey believes the anti-tech approach of the old guard television and film executives will lead to their demise unless they allow viewers to control the means of consumption.
“If you are watching a film on your television, is it no longer a film because you’re not watching it in the theater?” Spacey asked during his speech. “If you watch a TV show on your iPad is it no longer a TV show?”
“The device and length are irrelevant,” he concluded. For the viewers “there’s no difference watching Avatar on an iPad or watching YouTube on a TV and watching Game of Thrones on their computer. It’s all content. It’s all story.”
The conclusion? Give the audience control of the content they love — or get left behind.
[Editor’s note: if you haven’t burned an entire weekend watching all 13 episodes of House of Cards back-to-back, what are you doing with your life?]
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
