Today at the D: Dive Into Media conference, Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Corporation of America and Sony Entertainment, said that the rise of Netflix, DVR are fundamentally changing the way that viewers watch TV content. And that now changes the type of content is being produced and the quality of it.

The bigger paradigm shift here is the idea that consumers are getting used to binge-watching TV shows. And that, in turn, is changing the quality of content that is being produced… for the better. Lynton said that the rise of episodic TV — whether it be driven by cable shows like Mad Men or Sons of Anarchy, or by Netflix’s House of Cards — is accompanied by the idea that show runners no longer need to wrap things up neatly at the end of each episode.

The increase in episodic TV is also luring higher-quality actors, writers, and directors. Rather than trying to squeeze everything into an hour or two of TV, creators can now create longer-form, open-ended serialized dramas. “It’s one of the reasons you’re seeing explosion in creativity right now,” Lynton said.