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?
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