The Television Will Be Revolutionized

Revolution in the world of TV, video, cable.  Everybody's migrating.  We'll see where they're going.

Cable TV is so big, it’s hard to picture it gone.  The shows, the sports, the series, the monthly cable bills loom large in American life.  But a move to viewing TV content by web streaming – skipping cable for an Internet feed - is picking up steam so fast that insiders now predict cable itself may be gone, essentially over, in three to five years.

In its place – some combination of once-wild but increasingly compelling web streaming services – Roku, Boxee, Apple TV, Google TV, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime.

This hour, On Point:  Revolution in the fast-changing world of  TV.
-Tom Ashbrook

Whitson Gordon, deputy editor of Lifehacker, a technology website.

Kartik Hosanagar, professor of information operations management at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Bob Bowman, president and CEO, MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball.

Reuters "Amazon.com Inc is testing a new monthly option for its popular Prime video-streaming service as the world's largest Internet retailer steps up competition with Netflix Inc. Prime typically costs $79 a year in the United States for free two-day shipping, free video streaming and access to Amazon's Kindle e-book lending library. The company is now offering the service for $7.99 a month on its website, which works out to $95.88 a year, but at that rate it can be purchased strictly on a month-to-month basis."

Lifehacker "We've discussed Hulu Plus' strengths and shortcomings, but with other services out there, it's hard to put it all in perspective. Luckily, readerOCEntertainment has created a handy chart to show us what shows Hulu, Hulu Plus, and Netflix offer."