TV has entered a ‘third golden age’ says Kevin Spacey

Television has entered a “third golden age”, according to Kevin Spacey as he delivered the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at this year’s Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Citing popular shows including The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, Spacey said there was “inescapable evidence that the King of television is the creative”, and the challenge now is to “keep the flame of this revolutionary programming alive”.

The Oscar winning actor, who starred recently in Netflix exclusive House of Cards, said on Thursday that the medium has become its own art form and overshadowed film in terms of character-driven drama.

He also explained that the success of the Netflix model, releasing the entire season of House of Cards at once, has proved one thing – the audience wants the control. They want freedom and if they want to binge on programmes, they should be allowed to, he said.

Spacey compared Netflix to the music industry, saying that it learned the lesson that the music industry didn’t – to give people what they want, when they want it, and in the form they want it in.

The Internet, streaming and multi-platforming have all coincided with the recognition of TV as an art from – an “incredible confluence of a medium coming into its own just as the technology for that medium is drastically shifting.”

Spacey says that the studios and networks that ignore this shift will be left behind, as audiences evolve at an even greater pace.