News just in: the linear channels will be saved too.
Look at it this way: of course VOD will erode linear viewing figures. It's a new way of consuming content. People now have more choice, but there are still only 24 hours in a day. The question is, will it prove so convenient that it will completely replace linear broadcast. The eye-poppingly obvious answer is no, it will not.
The reason it will not is that linear platforms offer things that VOD cannot replicate. Much as cinema survived the advent of TV by being able to offer a more immersive experience, showing content whose cost-to-produce was far higher than could be sustained by a TV company, in a context that offers cinema goers a social experience, so linear broadcast TV will survive on its own advantages over VOD.
Some of the key advantages linear broadcast enjoys are:
- Ability to show live events (as identified in the article you found)
- Ability to connect with a passive audience
- Easy access to a mass audience for advertisers
- Ability to offer a version of the cinema's social experience - "water cooler" TV that is viewed simultaneously in sufficient numbers that it can be a discussion point the following day, thus enhancing the broadcaster's brand and the potential reach of their product.
Home taping didn't kill music.
TV didn't kill the cinema.
VOD won't kill the TV.