TV streams into the future

What might television look like in a year’s time, in a few years’ time, in a decade? Jock Given, Michael Brealey and Cathy Gray asked twenty-five people from across the industry and beyond. . The last quarter of 2014 and the early months of 2015 might turn out to be a decisive time for the medium we call television. In a single week in October, US networks CBS and HBO both announced online-only subscription video services. CBS All Access launched immediately, allowing viewers to watch the network live online and individual programs on demand. HBO Now would let customers subscribe to a standalone HBO service without paying for a multichannel cable or satellite TV package. The New York Times declared a “new era of à la carte television [had] arrived – seemingly all at once.” This was “a watershed moment for web-delivered television,” a move by two titans who earned “billions of dollars in profits from the traditional system” that signalled “how rapidly the balance of power is shifting in the television landscape.” Read the full article>   Photo credit: television / Shutterstoc