Disruption is leaving everyone, from investors to consumers, thoroughly confused. — I got quite a kick out of a recent piece by Alan Wolk for TV Rev. Apple’s recent announcement of Apple TV Plus sent several media stocks tumbling. But among them was Roku, a company that will almost certainly benefit from selling Apple’s new streaming product. While Apple also makes…

Current Strategies Risk Creating an Even Larger Problem — Traditional television has always been a big deal. Since its inception, and even into the internet age, for writers and actors, personalities of all kinds, even consumer products, appearing within millions of homes via television was a sure sign of going mainstream. You’d think that would mean that the television…

Solving the perennial problem starts with addressing the root cause. — Since the VHS era, piracy has been a constant headache for media companies. But as the television experience moves online, and becomes as many would argue, as flexible and accommodating as ever, those companies are failing to seize upon the opportunity to put a real dent in piracy, opting instead…

Does a quick-fix require taking big risks? — Some things never change. It’s rare to say that about the television industry, but in the case of CBS and Viacom, merger speculation has been a constant for years. As Sumner Redstone’s health declines, questions abound regarding the fate of his National Amusements media empire, which includes both CBS and…

As traditional TV takes on digital delivery, the consumer experience is suffering. — Fresh salvos are being fired in what could be the most consequential war for consumers’ living rooms and entertainment budgets, and threaten to bring media streamers closer to the much-discussed ‘Flixpocalypse’ in the coming years. In just a few short weeks, the following stories have broken: Disney strikes a deal…

Back to Basics: Learning to Love Linear Channels Again — I once opined that you can’t make consumers pay for channels they don’t want anymore. Forcing people to pay for content they don’t want has thus far proven to be a recipe for disruption and upheaval in the TV business. But now let’s take a look at the other side…

As Disney’s share of the streaming service grows, Hulu looks more and more like a Disney product, for better or worse. — They may have been late to the OTT party, ignoring years of pleas for an OTT ESPN product, but attitudes sure have changed in the Disney C-suite. Taking Charge of Hulu Disney is now reportedly in talks with AT&T to purchase their stake in streaming service Hulu, the 10% stake once held by Time…

Bob Bakish seems to describe two opposite directions for the troubled media giant. — Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, Viacom CEO Bob Bakish tried his best to answer the question that media industry followers have been asking for years now: What on earth is Viacom doing? A Tale of Two Media Companies… Viacom has had a rough few years, in stark contrast to the other half…

Last week was a busy one for TV industry news. Disney and Facebook both dropped big announcements of new streaming offerings. The tech press seems to love a Facebook story, having written about Facebook’s eventual entry into the TV space for years now. …