Woody Allen, House of Cards … what’s next for the television revolution?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/18/woody-allen-television-revolution-amazon-internet

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How do you watch television? Slumped together on the sofa like the Gogglebox families, commenting on whatever channel you’ve absent-mindedly tuned into? Curled up in bed binge-watching a series on Sky Go or BBC iPlayer? Or on the move, catching up on a new show from Netflix and the latest pilots on Amazon Prime Instant Video?

The way we consume TV is changing. Where once we waited eagerly to catch our weekly fix, these days we are masters of our own viewing destiny, choosing when to watch and, increasingly, what viewing platform to watch it on.

That shift was never more obvious than last week, when three events illustrated how much the line between TV and internet has begun to blur. On Sunday the Golden Globes named Amazon’s Transparent the TV comedy of the year, giving the award for best actor in a comedy to the show’s star Jeffrey Tambor. Meanwhile, the Globe for best actor in a drama went to Kevin Spacey for House of Cards, another show available only via a streaming service, in this case Netflix.

On Tuesday Amazon announced it had struck a deal with Woody Allen to write and direct his first TV series. While Allen, 79, seemed more than a little bemused, stating laconically “I don’t know how I got into this – I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin”, industry watchers hailed it as another coup for a company that started commissioning original television programming only in 2013.

Then last Wednesday the British cable channel Sky Atlantic said its latest original drama, the eerie thriller Fortitude, would premiere simultaneously in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy on 29 January, launching on the same day in the US through a co-production deal with little-known US cable channel Pivot TV.

Tambor believes that the success of Transparent is only the start of a television revolution. “This is where I feel all content is going,” he says. “Our win was huge; we’re the little engine that could and everyone’s paying attention. [At the Golden Globes] everything shifted.”

Certainly Amazon and Netflix have attracted an exciting array of talent. Amazon’s new projects include a Steven Soderbergh coming-of-age comedy, pilots from Ridley Scott and Lost’s Carlton Cuse and an adaptation of the bestselling Harry Bosch crime novels. Meanwhile, in March Netflix will bring us both the dark drama Bloodline, starring Sissy Spacek, and Tina Fey’s newest TV project, the half-hour comedy, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

It is not just about original content. Streaming services have breathed fresh life into all manner of shows, from allowing British comedies such as The Wrong Mans and Peep Show to find a US audience to providing a UK home for everything from bloody epic Vikings to the computer drama Halt and Catch Fire, set in the 80s.

“In the last five years we’ve seen a huge change in television,” says Jane Featherstone, chief executive of Kudos. “Yes, the biggest hits in the UK are still mainstream shows such as Downton Abbey, Broadchurch or Sherlock but the likes of Amazon and Netflix have shown that you don’t need zillions of viewers, you just need a few million who are very loyal and you can make high-end hits. It’s what HBO built their business on.”

Small wonder that everyone is trying to get in on the act. Vice Media’s co-founder Shane Smith has long claimed that his company will be “the next CNN and the next ESPN and the next MTV”. This year he will put those words to the test by launching a 24-hour news channel in Canada. If successful, expansion seems inevitable. Meanwhile, the big internet names, fearful of being left behind, have also begun to dip their toes cautiously into these fast-moving waters. Facebook has invested further in short videos, although recent reports of a full-throttle move into original programming appear wide of the mark. Search engine giant Yahoo was less cautious: its programming wing Yahoo Screen recently picked up the cult comedy Community for a sixth season in addition to commissioning two original shows.

Yet while TV and internet companies scrabble round searching for that elusive golden egg, what does this change mean for the viewer? The rise of the binge-watcher, gobbling every episode of a new series in two or three days, has led to a growing desire for instant gratification. Where a decade ago UK viewers would have waited months for the arrival of the latest US drama, now our fear of missing out, coupled with the possibility of illegal downloading and internet spoilers, means that wait could be a matter of hours. Sky Atlantic already airs Game of Thrones on Mondays, 24 hours after the episode has been shown in the US; this year it chose to launch both the Lena Dunham comedy Girls and its newest American acquisition, Togetherness, in the same way.

“The world is moving so fast that setting a policy on how to launch something and sticking rigidly to that seems desperate,” says Stuart Murphy, entertainment director of Sky.

“The assumption with most of the best American stuff is that we run close to their airdate because generally people don’t like waiting for a show. I know I don’t.”

Along with immediacy, we also crave choice. One of the most notable facets of Amazon’s business model is the way it hands power to the customer, allowing anyone to submit scripts from which pilots are chosen and then asking viewers to vote on which should be developed. It’s an interesting idea (although the viewer vote isn’t final) and one that allows for some pretty esoteric programming: among this year’s pilots is The New Yorker Presents, an odd hybrid of interviews, sketches, poems and cartoons that aims to capture the flavour of the celebrated magazine in TV form.

“Our position is not to make TV programmes by committee but to empower the creative executives behind the show,” says Chris Bird, director of content strategy at Amazon. “That gives us the opportunity to make something like that pilot and allow customers to decide what they think. It’s not how normal TV works but we’re skipping the TV executives and going straight to the user.”

Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks can pay dividends. It’s hard to imagine many US networks allowing Transparent to air in all its prickly glory. Similarly, the new classical music comedy Mozart in the Jungle feels refreshingly different from most other shows on TV.

“I feel as though every good UK TV production company is either in business or going to be in business with Netflix and Amazon,” says Featherstone. “Why wouldn’t you when it multiplies your chances of getting a show made in a writer’s market?”

Not that it’s all sunshine and roses. While global co-productions are clearly the future of television, and Kudos is currently involved in Humans, a co-production between Channel 4 and the US cable channel AMC, Featherstone sounds a note of caution. “Shows like The Wrongs Mans have found audiences in the US because they’re very British,” she says.

“I wonder if the existence of more co-productions will dilute the Britishness that makes them so interesting. Life on Mars was a huge global hit for us and a very British show. Would it be the same if it was made now?”

Nor are all streaming companies created equal. Last year Xbox Entertainment Studios closed only a year after it opened. None of its promised original programmes was made. Even Netflix and Amazon have not been free from misfires. The former’s medieval extravaganza Marco Polo was critically savaged although Netflix has still ordered a second season. The latter ordered a new series from Chris (X-Files) Carter after a positive audience reaction, only to then pull the plug without an episode being aired. Nor is the Allen deal without controversy, with US critics raising the live issue of sexual abuse allegations against him. It also remains unclear exactly how many people are watching these beautifully made shows or how long term either company’s plans are.

Yet one thing remains certain: the proliferation of media platforms can only be good news for viewers, no matter how we prefer to watch. “The joy of the technological media revolution is that it has proved viewers like shows that are reassuringly complicated,” says Murphy. “They want to be able to pause and reflect about what’s happened, to watch something that’s chewy … once their kids are in bed.”

SIX SHOWS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Better Call Saul Netflix

The eagerly awaited Breaking Bad spinoff sees Bob Odenkirk back as Saul Goodman wheeling and dealing his way out of trouble.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Netflix

Tina Fey’s newest show (she writes but doesn’t star), is the story of an escapee from a doomsday cult who attempts to start anew in New York.

Bloodline

Netflix

A dark family drama from the creators of Damages with an incredible cast including Sissy Spacek, Kyle Chandler and Ben Mendelsohn.

Mozart in the Jungle Amazon Prime Instant Video

Gael García Bernal stars as the impetuous composer in this quirky comedy from Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman.

Bosch Amazon Prime Instant Video

Adaptation of Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels stars Lost’s Titus Welliver as tormented detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch.

The Man in the High Castle

Amazon Prime Instant Video

The standout of this year’s crop of Amazon pilots, an alternative history drama based on a Philip K Dick novel that imagines a world in which the allies lost the second world war, leaving America partitioned between Germany and Japan.