“cable” is dying slowly, I think the reason it isn’t dying faster is inertia. A lot of folks seem reluctant to buy into the streaming approach. But fundamentally you’re correct.
Yes I think you are right. But some of that inertia comes from the networks. They are content with the business model. Take FoxNews (or CNN et al) for example. If I want to watch Tucker Carlson, I have to watch it when they air it. I can’t watch it on demand. I can DVR it. I have to watch the commercials (or fast forward them on the DVR). So it suits FoxNews to keep things as they are. They get paid by the cable companies and they get paid by the pillow guy and the guy who sells all those supplements. Why would they upset the apple cart? It works for them, for now. And in turn, the viewers who want to watch FoxNews (or any similar type network) have to subscribe to cable.
It is changing. There are streaming subscriptions you can buy that will give you most of the basic cable channels. But you still get the commercials. You just avoid the cable fee (but still need to pay for the pipeline if not cable than fiber or some other modality). And from what I can tell, it’s about the same price. Slightly different than the subscription streamers but it’s just an app you put on the smart TV.
Still, it’s all outdated. Personally I cannot stand commercial television. I got spoiled by streaming and just hate to watch commercials. I also am spoiled I don’t watch any show that makes me wait a week to see the next episode. I wait until the season is over and then stream it or watch it on demand.
It is changing, and will change. HBO just dropped Westworld and dozens of other shows they produced and paid for. They figure they can resell them to other networks to serialize and that they were not being watched enough on HBO to matter (no new HBO subscribers were coming on to watch a 6 year old TV show so they figured they can monetize it by selling it to non-HBO streamers). And these kinds of changes will continue. Personally I agree - inertia keeps me paying for the basic cable package but I only watch a few things. A few I DVR so I can skip the commercials, and a few I put on delay so I can skip the commercials. But the missus and I have agreed in principle we’re going to drop the entire cable subscription except for the internet. We may subscribe to a new service that will give us some networks but otherwise we get most of what we like from various streamers. I can get most of the movie channels from Amazon Prime. I don’t need Comcast or their stupid boxes and 2 TV remotes.