None of this discussed the 'why' traditional TV is in trouble, it just said that younger viewers aren't there. The actual WHY is that it is a terrible product

None of this discussed the 'why' traditional TV is in trouble, it just said that younger viewers aren't there. The actual WHY is that it is a terrible product which is being successfully outcompeted by a much better product. Television networks got large because they solved a very valuable problem - distribution. With the Internet, distribution is worthless. A clever 12 year old can do global media distribution on their free time as a hobby. It's not something to build an empire on. And it's certainly not something people are going to pay you $100+/mo just so you can lace it with ads and fill it with garbage content that exists not because an audience is wanting it but because some programming director wanted to make a name for themselves by going in a 'bold new direction'. Public response to creative works is random. Truly random. Maximum entropy. There are no patterns to discern. So humans do what they always do when they face randomness.. they invent myths and replace reason with bullshit. If you control distribution, you can still force a win by leaning hard on your successes and kicking out your losses as fast as possible. But once the audience has extremely broad choice... you are screwed. The future for media distributors is death. The future for media production companies is probably either working for Netflix, Amazon, or similar services or being supported by viewers who want their content directly via Patreon or a similar avenue. The creatives will be fine. The suits will be jumping off ledges.