Pay-TV providers to hit direct-to-consumer route in 2016
With the core concept of the TV channel fragmenting, 2016 will see a growing number of broadcasters tapping into burgeoning online video spend by selling their content directly to viewers, says research by IHS.
http://www.rapidtvnews.com/201512244...#axzz3vGccLVXr
This is very interesting, coming from the respected IHS, which
'provides information and analysis to support the decision-making process of businesses and governments in industries, such as aerospace, defense and security; automotive; chemical; energy; maritime and trade; and technology' (source: Wikipedia).
This professional 'think tank' organisation seem to be saying that we will soon have the choice between streaming services offered by all broadcasters, which we will be able to pick and choose as we please rather than simply have the limited bundles currently offered by Sky, Virgin Media, BT, etc, containing a plethora of channels nobody wants.
This may enable us to ditch all those wretched 'lifestyle' channels that come with the bundles in favour of what we really want to see, although whether our actual costs will come down.....I dare not even think that!
I expect that the linear channels offered by companies like VM will continue side by side for a while, but eventually, streaming will take over completely.
It's the way we're going, folks!