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by dragonwriter 4098 days ago
> Consumers will eventually have two choices: purchase a very small subset of services directly from providers or go back to the big bundle.

I don't think the cable-style "big bundle" will exist much longer, just premium sources which you pay for per source (or, for the highest-value premium content, per individual piece of content or individual viewing) and advertising-supported disaggregated content. There might be (advertising-supported) portals and aggregators for this providing something like the big bundle, but consumers won't be directly paying money for it (with the cable model they do, but over time that's going to go to paying for internet access.)
1 comments
coloroadie 4098 days ago
Why do you think the big bundle will go away? Sure, subscribing to a small number of one-off streaming services may make sense for some consumers, but not all.

For example: if you collect the top three must-have channels from each member of your average American family, you'll discover that mom, dad and the kids have very different tastes in media. By the time each family member finds and subscribes to the streaming service that provides them the content they want, they'll be paying much more than what they paid for the big cable bundle.

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dragonwriter 4098 days ago
> Why do you think the big bundle will go away?

Because the big bundle -- especially the big-bundle of sources that are themselves advertising-supported -- is an artifact of access-provider-as-gatekeeper. Especially with net neutrality, that's a feature of cable TV that doesn't exist on the internet.

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