Thanks for posting.

and while other networks will follow in the footsteps of what House of Cards has done, most will still fail. Why?
Because of the OTHER thing that he gets-that the content that you're delivering has to NOT SUCK.

I stopped paying for cable because of the 70 or so channels I was getting for the price I was paying, there was not a DAMN THING ON that I wanted to pay money to watch.
As it is, maybe in a year there are 5 television programs (that aren't news) that I want to watch, and THAT I can do online.

we cancelled cable/direct tv as soon as our contract ended. We were paying nearly 100 bucks a month and watching about 5 channel of which 3 were over-the-air free channels! We pulled the plug and never regret it. We hooked up a computer to the tv and watch most of the stuff on-line. We watch PBS news and World Channel live and that's about it. We watch Jon Stewart and a couple of other things and that's it. TV is awful and my husband can't stand the commercials. Most channels force you to watch one or two ads and then the content which we love. HBO is the only one I am pushing to put on-line without a cable subscription and expanded choices because they won't offer it with basic either.

and they (the netowrks/channels) would make so much money it would make the janitors grandchildren into millionares lol.

Just imagine, an audience that you can market to that has paid you specifically for the privledge of selling them stuff. Even at 5 bucks a month for "basic" channels, and maybe 10 for premiums like HBO/Showtime, you'd make a sick amount of money. Yeah, most people will only buy probably 5 channels, but they are DEDICATED, REPEAT CUSTOMERS, because you are selling them EXACTLY what they want, and nothing else.

Yeah, some people will pay for Golf Channel, FoxNews and Duck Dynasty (though, I have no fuckin' IDEA why), and yeah, some will pay you for Al-Jezeera and BBC and PBS. Either way, you make money and keep your customers happy. It also has the added benefit of actually empowering that "invisible hand" that everyone claims to love so much...because if most of America decides that Duck Dynasty really ISN'T worth paying 5 bucks a month for, your crap programming won't be on air for very long, and that's a GOOD THING.

He's right, the old model of entertainment is being trumped by Netflix, Youtube etc. It is all content, we want the stories.
I ditched cable years ago for several reasons, mostly because I was sick of the kids being marketed to and the smarmy relationships on kids networks sitcoms...
now, they control their own content as well, they watch youtube, netflix etc.

my daughter watched My Little pony episodes, art how-to videos, etc
they both got hooked on Dr. Who via Netflix and watched the whole season in a couple days.

I myself have done the same with House of Cards and The Newsroom, sometimes going back to re-watch an episode if I miss something.

the delivery of content has changed, the industry has got to keep up.

well done and some real truth

I am.. shall we say, pushing 60, and I can tell you that this is a process that started years ago. I remember when my family first got cable, and we had HBO. On HBO, there was a new movie every Saturday night. But that same movie was on probably 20 times in the next month. And this is back when there was just one HBO channel.

Then there was Tivo, and the many DVRs that followed. Now, we could watch even episodic TV when we wanted to, not when the networks wanted us to.

Now I have Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, and a Roku device, and a smart phone.

It is true, I suppose, that there are young people who have never known any other way, but many of us older folks have come to this point as well. I want to watch what I want, when I want and where I want.

And yes, I know that we are talking about something that is only a problem for those who can afford for it to be a problem.

I love shows from the UK. A "season" may be really short in terms of the number of episodes but they put out such great shows. Those are the shows that I am more apt to buy on Itunes.

while the medium is drastically different, this lecture COULD be almost given to anyone who wanted to make a living engaged in Public Policy/Government/Politics/Public Service. The SPIRIT needed get things done, to progress, to move forward, is the SAME; creative poeple engaged in new ways of confronting problems, guided by what History shows WORKS, and having Leaders/moneyguys with the BALLS to wait it out, rather than the "ratings" that come from winning the next News Cycle.

"WITH ABANDON" should be the motto of every one of us who KNOW that politics and Public Policy in America can, and MUST, be done BETTER. Fuck the rulebook, and to hell with what "The Party" wants from the proles. Be responsive to the needs of THE PEOPLE, and watch "the ratings" go through the fuckin' ROOF.

The nature of narrative is taking over. Make of that what you will, but it is significant.

What Mr. Spacey points out here is if you have the content people want and can provide it at a relative cost, people will buy it. Think about it this way; what if when you went into an ice cream shop and the only way you could get a scoop or a small pint of your favorite flavor was by purchasing access to the freezer containing all the flavors the shop sells, which won't come cheap.

Oh, did I mention even with access to the freezer, your flavor is only made on Tuesdays and in the freezer for only an hour. Hit bad traffic on the way to the shop and too bad for you. How long do you think a store would stay open with that kind of business model?

The non-creative types, they can see the writing on the wall, they weren't creative enough to put it there, but they see it. Content delivery as a concept is in the process of a major shift from a few making choices for the many, to the many providing choices for all. The executives will be out of a job if they're no longer able to laud their power and influence over creative people.

It is my strong belief a lot of the swill currently peddled on over-the-air and on cable as "entertainment" is to give the non-creative executive types a false sense of security about their own short-comings.

If people are paying us to make this garbage, then boy are they stupid! The reality is, people are turning away from television in droves and the only ones left watching are those who may have lower standards, or may not know any better, so the content is reflecting the audience that's left behind.

There is a larger audience hungering for good stories, well written, developed and allowed to be taken in at whatever speed the individual can absorb the story, the entire story; not doled out on some arbitrary, shifting schedule set to maximize ad dollars from a few corporations. The story needs to be accessed by the mass market at a nominal price for access. Then, if all they want is a scoop, they can do that, but if they want the whole gallon, they can get that as well.

You have those non-creative types drooling over the few corporations with masses of money, instead of realizing the potential masses of people with a few discretionary dollars in their pockets. So, they play to the big money, and wonder why no one is watching.

It's going to be interesting to watch how all this plays out over the next ten to twenty years. Cloud technology is just starting to take off, and public WiFi infrastructure is slowly heading towards open availability without the need for cable access in homes, who knows what's around the corner?