Right now, it’s good to be a couch potato.
This past week, Hollywood actor and recent Netflix star Kevin Spacey took to the stage at the Edinburgh International Television Festival for the keynote MacTaggart address. Heralding the “Golden Age of Television” with “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” “Homeland” and “Game of Thrones,” among others, Spacey had many good things to say about modern television. But he came bearing warnings, as well — ones that the television and film industries would do well to heed.
Up until the past 10 years or so, television and movie aficionados had no choice but to get their fill when and where they were told. Movies could be enjoyed in a specific building, for a specific price, and you only had one chance to catch your favorite show, when you were told to.
But within the last decade, television and movies have expanded outside the usual media, and consumers have broken out of their shackles. And Spacey, as the lead actor on Netflix’s wildly successful “House of Cards,” spoke on behalf of Netflix and new media everywhere.
Television, he warned, is the best it’s ever been. But he cautioned against conservatism and closed-mindedness, two traits that show up in every business that becomes successful long enough.
His main point was simple, and it addressed the two things most important to entertainment executives: what people are willing to pay for, and what people are willing to steal.
[quote]For most college students, as well as much of the world in general, finding a shortcut to the entertainment we want is almost the norm.[/quote]
"We have learned the lesson that the music industry didn’t learn," Spacey said. "Give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price, and they’ll more likely pay for it rather than steal it."
For most college students, as well as much of the world in general, finding a shortcut to the entertainment we want is almost the norm. Whether it’s ripping a song off YouTube or torrenting movies from various unseemly sites, the Internet is our quickest way to what we want to see.
While the music industry continues to push for new and increasing regulation to find and punish pirates, Spacey’s speech proposed quite the opposite: Make piracy the less appealing option.
Unneeded broadcast restrictions and unpleasant streaming sites often make turning to piracy the easier and simpler option right now. When your favorite show doesn’t get put online until a month after its broadcast date, it seems obvious that a segment of the population will turn to other means. It spits in the face of conventional market economics, but when you’re dealing with a product that has no finite supply and a means of distribution as vast as the Internet, it’s time to change your approach. And as alternatives to traditional media continue to pile up, investing in the way things have always been done is a short-sighted move at best. Apple TVs and the new Google Chromecast, as well as game consoles aiming to be full home entertainment platforms, just mean more chances to watch things that are already right in front of you. Having to rent a DVD just seems archaic, and no one’s going to make a family movie night out of “Grown Ups 2” on TBS.
Spacey has become a crusader for exactly what TV needs to hear: Give people what they want, when and how they want it, and customers will flock to you. Netflix has proven it with “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development,” and HBO Go continues to prove it year after year. The Golden Age of TV has reached its apex, but for how long it stays here is up to TV’s head honchos.