TV’s status quo may be strong, but technology will change it soon whether the industry is ready or not

June 6, 2012 | Source: The Next Web

(Credit: stock image)

“The idea that the web will cause the TV business to ‘collapse’ is fantasy,” wrote Dan Frommer yesterday in a calm response to Henry Blodget’s actually-quite-alarmist Don’t Mean To Be Alarmist, But The TV Business May Be Starting To Collapse.

While Frommer is right that the business of TV is actually still doing well as it is, and technology-led change will probably be a lot slower than Blodget suggests, he underplays one important factor — a “big splash” play from a new player that suddenly makes cord-cutting simple and attractive to consumers.

Whether it’s Apple, Microsoft or someone completely unexpected, technology will fundamentally disrupt the established business of TV within the next five years — because that’s what technology does. Just as the iPhone took the mobile industry by the throat, someone will do the same to TV, and the time has nearly come for that to happen.