Businesses typically go through phases of growth, maturation, and consolidation in that order. It's important to understand that late in its lifecycle a busine

Businesses typically go through phases of growth, maturation, and consolidation in that order. It's important to understand that late in its lifecycle a business often knows that the end is near and consequently reduces its value proposition and focuses on extracting as much value from customers as possible before it's too late. That's exactly the situation with network TV now, and the article says as much. Networks are losing viewers and cranking up the ads to meet short term profit targets, which cause them to lose more viewers. They do it because network TV has no long term future anyway. They know that Netflix, Prime, and the streaming model are murdering their aging business that was designed in a different era. They know this is not a battle they can win. So they are working on their own alternatives like CBS All Access Pass and milking the old cash cow for whatever's left before the end comes. Meanwhile if you're still watching conventional network TV, they're just going to screw you till the cows come home with a progressively shittier product because that's what a business in its end stages does. The most valuable commodity of today is your attention. Never in history have other people (i.e. firms) had so many ways to bombard you with things that attempt to command and manipulate your attention for their own purposes (i.e. making money). As a consequence, your attention has become extremely scarce and valuable. Network TV is now 12min of advertising per hour. Why are you giving away 20% of the most valuable thing you possess for free? Are the (increasingly lame) shows really that good? Take back your life from the attention mongers. Cut the cord, switch to Netflix, set up uBlock and a PiHole, never look back.