Chris DeVille, writing for The Verge:

In the music industry, which is also dealing with an influx of infinite streaming options, there’s been a lot of talk about curation. Everyone wants the ability to be the cool friend who filters out the garbage and points people to the good stuff — and to find ways to monetize that ability. It’s how Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal are striving to differentiate themselves.

TV channels are already adopting that strategy in their own way. The few networks that survive outside the comfort of a bundle will be the ones that mean something to people, that have built up a recognizable point of view. HBO did it first and best. Through a combination of quality programming and savvy branding (“It’s not TV, it’s HBO”), the network built up such fervent loyalty that when it finally launched its own subscription service, its customers followed in droves.

There are clear parallels between the networks and the web. Just as some sites are pure curation, so too are cable bundles. TV networks continue to rely on advertising as a significant source of revenue. As viewers migrate to alternatives like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, etc., that advertising revenue shrinks in direct proportion. Web sites built on similar advertising models are feeling a similar pinch, as alternatives spring up on a regular basis. More competition, and much of it free. Advertising revenue plummets.

Is this decline inevitable? Irreversible? Will we hit a point of critical mass when unbundled content is both plentiful enough and cheap enough to take the major networks out of the picture entirely? That critical point will occur when a network’s ad revenue no longer supports the budget for original programming.