Eventually, but not nearly as quickly as people think. Discovery’s revenue are climbing, 11% increase over last year up to just shy of 4 billion dollars a year. And of course they’ve positioned themselves well to profit from the internet too. 25 years from now is a long way away and there’s a lot of money to be made before then.
I’m thinking more like 5 years.
The number of people that subscibe to cable TV/satellite has already peaked. That number is already declining.
Internet ready TVs (which are just now hitting the market) will be the death knell for Cable TV. The technical barrier to dump cable has been too high for most people, but not anymore. As people discover how much is available over the internet they’ll be viewing cable less and less, and eventually ask the obvious: is it worth paying for cable anymore?
I’m thinking it will take about 5 years for internet ready TVs and boxes (like google’s) to get into enough of the market to cause cable providers serious losses.