Just finished reading an article in the NY Times about the 20th Century and Disney merger. One of the big points that came out is that everybody is betting on streaming. With viewers of broadcast and cable down, there is a business case for this view.
But here is what struck me. As more broadcasters start to fail/go out of business (see the more rural areas of the country), an interesting thing will develop. As with radio stations having the same problem, what happens to the bandwidth on the radio spectrum.
Now for those you that don't what this means, please allow me to explain some (but not all) points. In the United States, the radio band is leased to radio stations, television stations, and cell phone providers. Government/military get certain spots that the rest of are not allowed to touch. There is more about this, but you get the general idea.
When a station goes belly up, ownership of the bandwidth is up for grabs. Recently, cell phone companies have been snatching these up. At some point, they will reach a point that won't need anymore. Hence ownership will become too expensive, they will either let them lapse or try to sell them. (If no one buys them, they will lapse)
So what then. Will nobody use it? Or will we see a return to pirate stations? Radio broadcasting is fairly easy and cheap. I was the voice over person for a pirate station in the 1980s. Technology has gotten cheaper, smaller, and more powerful.
If everything goes on-line (entertainment and news), will the government even care about the pirates like they did in the 1980s and 1990s? There is plenty of dystopian fiction concerning this future. But we are on the edge of this now. Time to re-start your thinking.
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