The lead story--see screen grab above--in TechCrunch this morning is, "Internet TV and the The Death of Cable TV, really." Author Jon Orlin makes a pretty good case that the Internet really is starting to chew--not just nibble--into cable TV's future. In the second quarter of 2010, he observes, the cable carriers lost more than 700,000 subscribers. And the rise of Apple TV, Google TV, Netflix, Boxxee, and other new portals suggest that the hemorrhage will continue.
These changes in the cable business do not necessarily adversely affect the cable content-providers, including the news channels--provided, of course, that the content providers can themselves make the jump to the Internet. They say that "content is king," and that seems to be holding up; if Hollywood movies can be shown on a wide variety of platforms, so can other content providers.
Indeed, the cable carriers can transcend the limits of cable by themselves jumping into the Internet, wireless, and content-providing. Indeed, they have been doing so for a long time--viz. Comcast.
So the real lesson here is that as new technologies create more possiblities, every company--carrier and content-provider--will have to be alert to all possibilities, everywhere.
