Chris

You're simply unable - or unwilling - to deal with the scale of the problem.

None of these experts foresees a crippling problem, because nobody who knows anything about the subject, seriously believes the UK will have switched off broadcast TV and transferred our entire news and entertainment provision to IP-based services, not now, nor in 10 or 20 years time.

Throughout this thread you have been predicting the end of linear TV based on nothing more than your fondness for the alternative.

Others have pointed out to you that:

- a linear TV schedule provides least friction for a busy consumer with limited appetite to make conscious choices;
- any live event is, and will always be, by its very nature, broadcast according to a linear schedule;
- one-way transmission by satellite or terrestrial transmitter is a vastly more efficient way of delivering high-bandwidth content to large numbers of people simultaneously. This requires scheduled broadcast, even if the end user stores transmissions (TiVo or similar) for later consumption on-demand;
- scheduled broadcast puts large numbers of people within reach of advertisers simultaneously;
- it also increases the number of simultaneous views of content, allowing for popular shows to achieve the prized "water-cooler moment" that further publicises them;
- all of which is essential, given the high cost of quality, original TV.
- and, not forgetting, the hard fact that the internet's projected future bandwidth and energy requirement is already enormous, without the added burden of putting our entire TV system onto it.

These are the facts. Nobody wants the future you keep pushing, in sufficient numbers to make it happen. On-demand streaming has its place in the mix, but that's all it will be for the foreseeable future.