Is Cable TV "Toast"?

There was a time when a reasonable person might have questioned the extent of demand for 'cable TV.' Why people would pay extra when they could just watch broadcast TV did not seem to make sense. But then cable TV changed, transitioning from its original 'antenna reception' to the 'more choice' platform it uses today.

Lots of observers have to be wondering whether something about that significant could happen within the next decade or so. Granted, that pace of change would seem glacially slow to people expecting change at the rate of web apps, but the TV ecosystem is much more highly integrated, unlike the loosely-coupled Internet ecosystem.

But that same loose coupling could be a huge issue if content owners and networks decide to make lots more content available for Internet streaming, and if the rest of the supporting ecosystem can get critical mass. Those are big 'ifs.'

Still, even some executives in the multichannel video business seem convinced huge changes are possible. Shawn Strickland, Verizon VP, says the firm, which offers FiOS TV, now believes a substantial amount of video cord cutting will happen.

'We've been looking at this issue for the better part of a year, and our perspective has pretty much done a 180 to a belief now that pay-TV 'cord cutting' will happen,' he says."

Is Cable TV "Toast"? - Thoughts on Carrier Evolution - Carrier Evolution