Netflix has strayed from the traditional necessary production of a pilot episode to establish the characters and create arbitrary cliffhangers to prove to the network that the concept of the show will be successful. Kevin Spacey spoke at the Edinburgh International Television Festival about how the new Netflix model was effective for the production of "House of Cards": "Netflix was the only company that said, 'We believe in you. We've run our data, and it tells us our audience would watch this series.'" Traditional networks are unwilling to risk millions of dollars on shows without first seeing a pilot, but Spacey points out that 113 pilots were made in 2012; 35 of them were chosen to go to air, 13 were renewed, and most are gone now. The total cost of this is somewhere between $300 million and $400 million, which makes Netflix's deal for "House of Cards" extremely cost-effective, according to Spacey. Netflix's subscription fee also eliminates the need for commercials, so they do not need to appease advertisers to fund their original content, a model similar to pay television services such as HBO and Showtime.