The TV industry is constantly going through change. Focusing just on the last 20 years or so, we’ve seen several waves of disruption:
Boxes: TiVo, Slingbox and others allowed viewers to take the content they traditionally had to consume where and when it aired on their televisions and move it through time and space, digitally.
Piracy: File sharing, YouTube and a myriad of other sites and services made it easy for viewers to consume the content they couldn’t find anywhere else, without paying for the privilege.
Legitimate online services: The next wave was an increasing legitimization of online video on demand options for consuming video, as YouTube began to respond to lawsuits, Netflix began to offer streaming and Hulu emerged as a first attempt by many content owners to re-engage with viewers.
One of the consistent themes in almost all of this disruption has been a twofold shift:
- A move away from the television and toward other devices
- A move away from traditional providers of paid television services
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