Jeffrey Katzenberg is as sad as other fans around the world about the end of Breaking Bad. Unlike those other fans, though, the DreamWorks Animation boss has the clout to try to do something about it.

Katzenberg pitched the show's producers an idea: he'd pay them $25m per episode to make three more episodes running beyond the finale. "I have one criteria: you have to deliver them to me in six-minute segments," he said, recounting the pitch during a keynote speech at the MIPCOM conference in Cannes today.

Sitting down with The Guardian after the speech, Katzenberg stresses that the plan to deliver a daily chunk of Breaking Bad to fans was a true story.

"My idea was literally that you'd pay 50 cents a day for 30 days, so it would be $15, and I actually think there are 10m people around the world that would have done that," he says.

"That's $150m, so the $75m I was prepared to pay would have delivered a 100% return on investment. And I'm trying to get people to think about this space in a new way by telling that story. It's emblematic of an opportunity coming."

Obviously, the producers said no: without giving anything away, the finale of Breaking Bad was very much a finale. But it's a sign that DreamWorks sees money in bite-sized mobile content, even at a point where the mobile apps market is increasingly diving towards free.

"They'll pay for it if it's good, and if they feel there's great value," says Katzenberg. "You'd pay 50 cents for six minutes of Breaking Bad! And why? Because it's the best show on television."

Katzenberg's MIPCOM address was a rousing defence of the traditional television industry, complete with a verbal smackdown for former Intel executive Sean Maloney for his prediction in 2007 that online video "will completely unravel the traditional television model".

On-stage, Katzenberg noted that TV viewing had increased since that comment was made. "Yes, there will continue to be exponential growth of Internet-delivered content, but linear TV will continue to do just fine," he said.

"If people like Sean Maloney were to be right in their predictions that the Internet will render linear television obsolete, then this would go against the entire half-millennium history of mass media. Throughout this history, in not one instance did a new form of mass media replace an earlier form."

AwesomenessTV's Brian Robbins is 'an incubator to find hits'

Awesome online video

DreamWorks is investing in online video, though, through its acquisition of YouTube multi-channel network AwesomenessTV, whose CEO Brian Robbins spoke earlier in the week at MIPCOM, and which focuses on shortform video for tweens and teenagers.

AwesomenessTV now runs more than 180,000 YouTube channels with more than 25m total subscribers and 2bn video views, attracting more than 60m unique monthly viewers. Katzenberg sees it as a key plank in DreamWorks' future plans.

"Brian is not just an incubator to find stars: he's an incubator to find hits. We've never had that in television. If you look at what's going on in network TV today, they've gotta make a bazillion shows, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and maybe three or four things come out of it," he says after the speech.

"Brian is able to do it instantly, he gets feedback literally within hours of posting something, and his metrics are vastly greater. So that marketplace is not only going to have value in its bits and bytes, but as an incubator for big ideas and things that can then move to linear."

As an MCN, AwesomenessTV's distribution platform is YouTube, although Robbins said in his earlier speech that the company will diversify into own-brand apps for smartphones, tablets and consoles.

2013 has seen speculation about the economics of YouTube, though: whether the advertising revenues on Google's service are enough to fund the growing production costs of the bigger MCNs, for example. Does that concern Katzenberg?

"It's in its infancy. The YouTube world is truly a baby, and it's finding its way. Yes, there are things about it that are difficult and challenging, there are people that talk about whether the business model works, whether there's enough for the content creators, the ad splits… all of these things," he says.

"It's all new, and people are trying to figure it out. But it's going to work, it's going to evolve. One of the most talented and forward-thinking executives in media today is Robert Kyncl, who runs YouTube. This is a guy who's looking over horizons and around corners, and I have a lot of confidence in him that he will change as he needs to change."

Katzenberg adds that Google is making the right noises about its growing content business. "They're trying to figure out the content side of it, it's all new to them and they're struggling a little bit with it, but they are paying attention to it. They're not ignoring it!"

Katzenberg sees Gravity as a success story for 3D cinema Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd

Cinema's evolution

AwesomenessTV is aimed squarely at children, many of whom will be watching on tablets and mobile phones. But their changing media habits – as well as those of slightly older people – could be seen as a challenge for a company like DreamWorks.

If people are watching shortform videos on mobile devices – and possibly paying 50 cents per episode – where does that leave longform feature films? Katzenberg makes short work of my suggestion that my four and six year-old sons struggle to sit through a 90-minute film.

"When How to Train Your Dragon 2 comes out next summer, they will be at your throat. 'Daddy daddy daddy! Now now now! When when when?!' If we make things they care about, in longform and in movie theaters, people are going to go," he says.

"It has to be a big, grand and communal experience. I went to see Gravity this weekend: what an amazing movie! What a great movie experience. It's dazzling, and that's what movies are about."

Mention of Gravity reminds me of an interview Katzenberg gave two years ago strongly criticising rival studios for mishandling the potential of 3D movies, and describing the format as being "right smack in the middle of its terrible twos".

Is Gravity a sign that it's matured into a cheerful pre-schooler? "I'm thrilled to death, because people were literally celebrating 3D's demise over the summer, which I think is tragic, because it's a tremendous creative storytelling tool," says Katzenberg.

"It wasn't just a way to prize more money out of the hands of moviegoers: it was a way to offer them something better. But unfortunately most of the people that went out and used the tools took the shortest distance between two points, and delivered the minimum. There were only a handful of people who delivered the maximum."

Katzenberg admires the storytelling in Grand Theft Auto V, but doesn't see DreamWorks going deeper on games

Hollywood challenges

Coverage of Hollywood tends to swing backwards and forwards based on whether the latest big film has been a hit or a flop, but suggestions that the blockbuster model is creaking have been growing in recent times.

On-stage at MIPCOM, Katzenberg proudly announced that 19 of DreamWorks' 20 computer-generated animated films have been profitable, but it's not immune from a flop: a loss of $83m on the Rise of the Guardians film led to layoffs earlier this year.

After the speech, Katzenberg parries a question about the health of the film industry. "This is the most successful year in the history of the movie business to date. Hollywood's not in trouble!" he says.

"There are aspects of the business that are challenging today, which is really driven mostly by cost. We're not the only business that has that: it was part of the challenge to happen to network TV, and that brought about cable."

Katzenberg's voice rises as he continues to make his points: about a strong return on investment and very high margins for DreamWorks' business, and the way its model factors in inevitable risks on projects.

"You can't make unique and original without it being risky. If we're going to do original, different ideas that have not been done before, then literally inherent in that notion is risk, and risk means there will be some failure," he says.

"We just don't bet our enterprise on any single movie. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the movie business. Everybody's running around talking about 'woe is the movie business', and then Gravity comes out and everybody shuts up! That thing's gonna be a ginormous blockbuster."

Talking of ginormous blockbusters, how about Grand Theft Auto V? The PS3 and Xbox 360 console game recently became the fastest game to gross $1bn, reaching that milestone three days after going on sale.

It's also the most ambitious Grand Theft Auto game yet in terms of scale and storytelling. Doesn't DreamWorks fancy getting into that line of business more deeply, rather than just licensing its franchises out to games firms?

"We've always had games associated with our stuff, but we are not game makers. I think there's as much talent and creativity and storytelling to making a great game as there is to making a great movie. But they're not the same," he says.

"I've met those guys that made Grand Theft, and they're really talented. They are uniquely talented, and they're telling a story in their way. So it's not right for us, but I admire and recognise that they are storytellers."

DreamWorks is gunning for the same time-killing mobile moments that have made Angry Birds a hit

Mobile entertainment

Katzenberg also has praise for a company in a different part of the games industry, Rovio, which besides turning Angry Birds into a global smash, also worked with DreamWorks on a mobile game for its film The Croods.

"I think [CEO] Mikael Hed is a major talent, I think he's a great entrepreneur, and he's really forward-looking in looking at Angry Birds as more of a platform then just a one-off franchise. He's smart, and he's doing interesting things with it," he says.

Could he see DreamWorks learning lessons from Angry Birds, Talking Friends and other character-based brands that started in mobile then expanded into animation and merchandise?

"Could do. I mean, there's no question that Angry Birds has fantastic recognition. Whether those characters are gonna translate into longform, I don't know. They're doing a nice job with their cartoons. They're pretty cute."

DreamWorks is gunning for the same bite-sized chunks of entertainment time on mobile devices that has made Angry Birds so popular, though. Katzenberg's Breaking Bad idea is one sign of that, and he made the ambition clear in his earlier speech too.

"We used to fill it with Tetris. Now we're going to fill it with rich media. To fill this space that exists is this enormous, enormous, enormous untapped opportunity."