Introduction:
The case study of “Will TV Succumb to the Internet” explains how the Internet has transformed how viewers watch television programs and other videos. There are now several online outlets in which viewers can watch whatever TV show/movie they desire. YouTube was one of the first online outlets by allowing users to provide video clips, and even entire TV shows, for anybody to watch. However, this was considered copyright infringement, and a 2008 lawsuit made it much more difficult to put clips on YouTube without proper authorization. Web sites offering streaming video of TV shows have since revolutionized the way in which viewers watch TV shows and movies. High-powered companies such as Hulu and Netflix have caused a number of U.S. households to get rid of their cable, satellite, or high-speed television services altogether. The number of U.S. households to follow this trend is predicted to double in the upcoming years. However, these companies providing online video-streaming have experienced growing pains regarding revenue. They have had to charge users a higher fee for their services because the main source of revenue, advertising, is not generating enough money to satisfy all of the content suppliers. Regarding advertising, there have also been complaints about the number of ads shown while viewing online TV shows. This could cause these unhappy customers to rebel and go back to subscribing to their basic cable services. Nonetheless, cable companies are feeling the impact of their customers canceling subscriptions for online video services. With technology continuously improving, Web TV and video sites could completely take over and put cable companies out of business.
What competitive forces have challenged the television industry?
Internet appears to be playing an increasingly prominent role in televisions business strategy than it has in the past. The case study explores tendencies in television industry’s recent endeavors from an IT point of view. Television industry is losing viewers to the internet streaming of television programming. According to Loudon & Loudon, 2012, “the number of cord-cutting U.S. households is predicted to double to about 1.6 million.”(pg.118) A major problem that has been created for the television industry is the loss of revenue from prescribers and advertisers the television industry is embracing this change by using the internet as another delivery system for it content.
Describe the impact of disruptive technology on the companies discussed in the case.
Depends on the company and its position in the market impacted. If it's the innovating company, it could begin by negatively impacting its bottom line, unless investors have been watching carefully and invest sufficient capital meaning a cash influx. Large competitors, on the other hand, are seldom flexible enough to react nimbly to such innovations; however, because of their access to huge amounts of capital, they are well-positioned to acquire and either incorporate or cannibalize their competition.
How have the cable programming and delivery companies respond to do internet?
Over the last few years the scripting programming languages made a giant leap ahead. About ten years ago they were viewed as axillaries tools, not really suitable for general programming parse. Now they generate a tremendous amount of interest both in academic circles and in the software industry. The execution speed and memory consumption of scripting languages vs. the traditional languages is studied in. Article presents a historical back- ground of the scripting languages. In a practical case of using the scripting languages in a commercial environment is presented. Finally, presents some trends for the future.
What management, organization, and technology issues must be addressed to solve the cable industry’s problems?
The cable company has to remain profitable and retain their subscribers. The internet is another tool for them to keep their customers happy. Also, cable programmers stand to earn more advertising revenue from their online content. This is because viewers can’t skip ads on TV programs streamed from the web. Technology is always evolving so the cable industry just has to keep up and evolve with it.
Have the cable companies found a successful new business model to compete with the Internet? Why or why not?
Today the CEO of Netflix said something kind of crazy and probably true. On the smart TVs and set-top boxes of the future, he said “Your cable provider will be an app.”
Here’s why that matters History has taught us that at the moment at which the means of distribution are separated from the content they distribute, old monopolies break down, assumptions are thrown out the window, revenues tank, giant companies crash and burn and from their ashes are born entirely new ones.
We all know what happened when the internet replaced the newspaper as the primary source for written news – and just as importantly, the many forms of advertising that used to accompany it. Now news-gathering outlets realize that the fourth estate had always been subsidized, and the failure to find an alternate source of subsidy means that the contraction in that industry has been profound.
If more television programs were available online, would you cancel your cable subscription? Why or why not?
I do believe the cable companies have found a successful new business model not so much to compete with the internet but to use it as a resource. The internet is a wonderful tool and pretty much everyone utilizes it. The cable industry would be foolish not to utilize it too. The same thing is about to happen to cable networks. Actually, it’s already happening: In 2009, Time Warner and Time Warner Cable split, which means the HBO and all the other Time Warner studios are no longer owned by one of the companies that controls the physical infrastructure to deliver them. Comcast, on the other hand, still has significant stakes in a number of content creators.
Conclusion if cable becomes just another app on your TV; another icon on your Google TV-enabled set-top box or Roku or Apple TV or Android-powered Samsung what’s-it, the monopolistic connection between the owner of the distribution infrastructure and the provider of the content that populates it will be broken, sort of.
This is just one of the reasons why ‘net neutrality is under constant threat, by the way: Because cable companies are also delivering the overwhelming majority of the broadband internet service in this country, it’s in their interest to privilege their own content, and especially to make sure that it doesn’t become just another app, indistinguishable from all the other on-demand content on our televisions.
