[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I’ve learned to give as good as I get on this Forum.

As for the rest of your post, you really don’t get it, do you? Viewers will not have the choice if the channels are wound up and replaced by on demand only.

No evidence for this.

In the last 10 years, TV audiences have been watching less and less by way of our TV channels and audience growth for the streamers is pretty well the same as for the channels now.

Not an unreasonable observation, I’ve always said it’s the expectation this growth hits 100%.

In another 10 years, the audience for the channels will have diminished to such an extent that to continue supporting them will no longer be worthwhile and there will be the same old content on repeat, watched by people advertisers are not so interested in.

No evidence for this. What is the minimum number of viewers required to sustain a linear channel for someone like Sky, or the BBC, who own the content rights anyway?

Your misconception that linear and streaming are somehow contradictory and mutually exclusive positions for some of the largest companies in the media market to pursue one (and one only) is the inherent flaw in all of your speculative “analysis”.

Not absurd, but I think it is unlikely. Go into the streamers nowadays and you will find trailers playing in the background. Why do you need to select channels in order to do this?

Nobody who doesn’t already subscribe to an app is going to enter that app to see trailers for content they don’t subscribe to on a voluntary basis. How do you package this for non-subscribers to upsell? What are they getting in return?

While it is possible for channels and streamers to co-exist, by now even you must be asking yourself why this would be necessary, and you refuse to contemplate that we may be losing the capacity to use the bandwidth anyway!

Are we losing that bandwidth by 2035?

I guess 5G broadcasts are possible, but there appear to be few signs of interest in that option in this country.

Once again, you are fighting this argument tooth and nail as if this is my decision to choose the streaming only path. It’s actually nothing to do with me, guv, I’m just reporting what I see as the likely outcome. No need to get so exercised about it.

Other views are available.

I’m not exercised about anything - I’m very happy that everyone gets to enjoy a range of products in a diverse pay-tv ecosystem.

It’s your visceral response to anyone who comprehend any alternative, based on what rational consumers in the marketplace will continue to watch and rational profit seeking companies may provide, that prolongs these threads.

Your Netflix Nostradamus shtick provides light entertainment as each prediction unravels. No adverts on streamers. Blowing Sky out the water for Premiership rights.