I must report I had a fascinating couple of days with the new gift I bought the family, a Roku box. Having learned of it first right here on this board, and since we don't have cable, I decided to splurge a little and get one to see what all the shouting is about.
I gotta tell you, I am blown away. First of all, there are so many channels to choose from, your head could explode. But then, when you explore further, each of those channels actually is the portal for a whole tree structure of many, many other channels.
Along the way, I proudly noted the slogan "Powered by Telvue" at the top of one of the channels. It is the same public access channel we talked of many months ago. When you access it, one of the things you notice is that to make it simpler to crawl through all of the available public access channels it can hook you to, it provides the ability to downselect to a single state at a time. You really have to, given the huge number of public access channels that are available through the site.
Other channels have so much material on them that it took us literally hours to crawl through just ONE of them, noting what it had to offer. And we signed up for about 25 of the free channels.
A long time ago, I was sent to a course to learn to recognize a paradigm shift as it approached, so your business wasn't one of the ones that got run over and destroyed when the market abruptly changed from what it was to what it was becoming, but rather allowed you to be there early and take part in the revolution. After having spent a couple of days with a Roku, I am personally convinced that we are seeing the beginning of the end of cable television as we know it. Between the over-the-air signals I get from network broadcasters (all HD, of course), and the broad, almost limitless array of movies, news, weather and shows that this box provides me with (and this is WITHOUT a Netflix or Hulu subscription), I can certainly say that I no longer envision the need for cable for my own household.
Real-time weather channels? Now I got 3 of them on my channel list (and several others are available, but how much weather do I need?). News? Got all 4 US networks, RT (Russia) DW (Germany), BBC, Ireland, India, Aljazeera, Bloomberg, NPR, PBS and Lord only knows what else I haven't run across yet (China is available, but I don't need a Lord Hawhaw Barking at me). Movies? Even without a premium service, I could sit there 24/7 till I died of old age and never finished them all. TV shows? CBS provides full shows of 60 minutes, 48 hours, and again, I have't explored fully down there yet. Same for NBC. Same for ABC. I get the live feed from Bloomberg in real time, including stock and other breaking info. There are dozens of local channels from around the US that stream their news for you to see. Comedy channels (I got 3 of them). Food channels. Religious channels. Streaming radio stations where you select your own music tastes and it builds a selection for you. Sports? so far I found MLB, basketball, hockey, cricket (and I'll bet you soccer is there too, if I look). University classes on the air. For free.
And this is only after a day with the box.
Here's my point. Telvue is making the equipment that enables this technology to happen. Yes there are others. And yes, Telvue has some debt. But, I foresee a time when no one will need/want to pay $70, $80, $100 per month for cable, and instead, the providers will pump their own material over the web to boxes like Roku. That cuts the middle man out of the picture and lets them pocket more of the ad money. That's the real point. There is a real business model where people can make more money with this technology than without it.
I am of the opinion that as this wave picks up momentum, the equipment makers will first boom, then merge/acquire/shake out to a few of the good ones. My current opinion is that Telvue will be in there leading the pack.
AI
