Binge viewing kills the TV cliffhanger

AS the gunshots rang out and JR Ewing fell to the floor, audiences held their collective breath - and released it only when Dallas next aired eight months later.

House of Cards

AS the gunshots rang out and JR Ewing fell to the floor, audiences held their collective breath - and released it only when the next series of Dallas aired a full eight months later.

Last night, however, Kevin Spacey signalled the demise of such cliffhangers.He called on television bosses to let viewers "binge" on shows by putting every episode online at once.

The Oscar-winning actor said traditional broadcasters must respond to a revolution in viewing habits or risk losing out to online streaming and illegal downloads. He warned that they could go the way of the record labels that once dominated the music industry if they fail to adapt.

Delivering the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Spacey said that viewers wanted more complex, story-driven programs that can be watched how they want, when they want.

"The audience wants the control, they want freedom," he said.

Spacey was last month nominated for an Emmy for his role in House of Cards, the $US100 million ($A111million) American remake of the acclaimed British political series which was made by the online streaming service, Netflix. The entire series was available at once.

He said traditional broadcasters were too conservative and preoccupied with "raw, dumb" ratings at the expense of innovative or artistically challenging programs.

"Studios and networks who ignore either shift - whether the increasing sophistication of storytelling, or the constantly shifting sands of technological advancement - will be left behind," he said. "And if they fail to hear these warnings, audiences will evolve faster than they will.

"[Viewers] will seek the stories and content-providers who give them what they demand: complex, smart stories available whenever they want, on whatever device they want, whenever they want. Netflix and other similar services have succeeded because they have married good content with a forward-thinking approach to viewing habits and appetites."

Giving users the flexibility to access content whenever they want could help to combat internet piracy, which devastated the business models of the music industry, Spacey added. "Give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it, at a reasonable price, and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it."

Spacey, 54, made his name in Hollywood with roles in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. More recently, he has served as creative director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

The success of House of Cards, in which Spacey stars as a cynical US congressman, has hinted at the changing demand for access to content now that viewers can get television on their computers, tablets and phones. "If they want to binge, as they've been doing on House of Cards, then we should let them binge. Many people have stopped me on the street to say: 'Thanks, you sucked three days out of my life.'"

Spacey said that he and the show's creators pitched House of Cards to all the major US networks, who liked the concept but were not willing to risk commissioning more than a pilot.

"We were creating a sophisticated, multi-layered story with complex characters who would reveal themselves over time, and relationships that would take space to play out," he added.

Netflix has signed up about 1.5 million users in the UK since it launched last year. However, analysts were sceptical that it would replace the big mainstream broadcasters or pay-TV providers in the near future.

Toby Syfret, from Enders, a consultancy, said that Netflix was "settling into the existing ecosystem simply as another channel choice option", rather than being seen by most viewers as a replacement for conventional television.