The Cable TV Endgame is Here
The Cable TV Endgame is Here: Disney vs. Charter Communications
The ~$200 billion TV industry is starting to crumble as the foundation laid by a decades long alliance of programmers and distributors begins to give way.
Over the past decade, ~42 million US households have abandoned traditional pay TV plans. Most of these households gave up on live television entirely. The cable-TV industry thrived for decades based on the model of charging users for more channels than they could possibly watch. The cable providers then paid out a portion of the fees to channels they carried. Entertainment giants steadily began demanding larger fees for their channels, which drove up the price of cable further, and resulted in more consumers cutting the cord. Contrast this with the relatively low price of a service like Netflix. At this point, I would argue the main selling point of the traditional cable TV package is live sports, but now both ESPN+ and Peacock have exclusive NFL games on their platforms this season.