[PostOnce]

I've always been of the opinion that a TV is just a display. A computer/the web/netflix just gives you access to more content for that display; it's still a TV. Analog broadcast channels, digital cable w/ box and guide features, the full web and netflix, what's the real difference here other than quantity of content? We'll still be watching shows and movies on large format displays for the foreseeable future.

tl,dr: A TV is just a display, we're not going to stop watching content, why say TV is bound to die?

[koralatov]

A lot of people use `TV' to refer to both the thing on the wall, and the industry that produces things to show on the thing on the wall. I think that's the case here.

Assuming I've read the OP right, I don't agree with the assessment that the TV industry ``is bound to die''. The demand for high-quality, well-made programming remains relatively stable (maybe increases gradually over time), and even with the best will in the world, amateur producers can't produce anything to match something like Game of Thrones. So there will probably always be something akin to the TV industry producing that sort of programming.

What probably will change is the means of distribution -- it'll be over the internet instead of over the air -- but I don't think there will be a radical shift in the style of broadcast for a long time. People are happier paying $XX for a cable/satellite package and getting an Eat-As-Much-As-You-Like experience instead of buying each course separately. If this wasn't the case, we'd already have seen a massive uptick in people cancelling their TV service and just buying $PROGRAMME season-by-season on iTunes. As far as I've seen and read, that just isn't the case.

[MatthewPhillips]

The more availability of internet-based programming, the more people will use it. The more people use it, the more strain is put on bandwidth, which in many areas is already strained. I think we're in for a rude awakening here; the TV industry is warming up to internet distribution faster than the broadband industry is advancing its tech. People run back to cable when Netflix buffers every 5 minutes.

[koralatov]

I agree completely, but broadcasting their programming via the internet isn't a paradigm shift for anything except set viewing schedules. Whether I'm watching The Walking Dead over the air at a set time, or watching it over the internet whenever I feel like it, I'm still watching it, and the TV industry as we know it still needs to exist in a relatively similar form to produce it. The only real change is that they broadcast from a server instead of via a transmitter, and they can't guarantee to advertisers that I'll be sitting down at a certain hour to watch it, which may dilute their advert's effectiveness somewhat.

[mixedbit]

You are right, TV viewed as just a display is IMO not bound to die. But TV as a platform for delivering content very likely is (and this is large part of the business). Companies creating smart TVs are definitely not agreeing that TV should be just a display, because then what would be a point of putting a feature rich OS there?