The choice of content and number of technologies that audiences view television with are increasingly expanding in the post-network era, leading those who use the medium to question its definition. In the wake of the Internet, online programming and streaming technologies, the death of television is frequently forecast.  Netflix’s 2013 release of their original online production House of Cards prompted popular media and trade journals alike to declare a revolution of television that would result in a paradigm shift of current production and viewing practices. House of Cards is esteemed for its distribution method and asserted advantages over traditional television by creators and executives surrounding the show, which calls for an examination of the specific practices that are dubbed ‘innovative’, as current television production practices have been put in place for years. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the claims surrounding the series through production and textual analysis. Second-hand sources are used to gather evidentiary claims surrounding the production, and analyzed using historical poetics analysis with Jason Mittell’s complex television definitions in order to make comparisons of particular elements of the creation, production and distribution of House of Cards. Making these areas its starting point, this inquiry provokes larger questions of the future of online television programming in general, and its role in the death of television in particular.

This diploma thesis deals with intertextuality in Game of Thrones series from the academic perspective. The thesis presents a comprehensive summary of selected intertexts including their classification according to the different types of semantic connection. The theoretical frame is based on the theoretical approaches of leading intertextuality theorists in literature and culture in general. In addition, it reflects the position of Game of Thrones series in the cultural mainstream, both in regards of its popularity and dissapointment of viewers over the final series. Based on national and international critical reviews, this diploma thesis analyzes the genre changes in Game of Thrones and focuses especially on the shared features with the soap opera genre. The fantasy genre specifics and its possible influence on reality is also briefly described. The methodological part summarizes the analytical tools and formulates research questions. According to the different types of semantic connection, the analysis is divided into three parts: the referential intertextulity (the connection to history), the intertextuality between texts (the connection to other works of culture) and the inner intertextuality (the connection to other elements inside the series). The first part of the analysis describes...