Kevin Spacey says TV, film industries must give viewers control over what and when they watch

LONDON – Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey says television has overtaken cinema as the home of quality character-driven drama, but the industry risks failure if it doesn’t recognize that viewers want control over what they watch, and when.

Spacey told the Edinburgh Television Festival that the success of his political thriller “House of Cards” — released all at once on video-streaming service Netflix — proved his point. He said Friday: “If they want to binge — as they’ve been doing on ‘House Of Cards’ — then we should let them binge.”

He said movie producers could adopt a similar approach to help beat piracy, releasing films simultaneously online, in cinemas and on DVD.

Spacey says, “if it’s all available nobody is going to be stealing it before someone else gets it.”