It’s hard to relive the past decade of the media business without cringing a little at how the biggest players handled the innovator’s dilemma of streaming. As cord-cutting unequivocally became the future, legacy media companies staved off their own putative Blockbuster dystopia by franchising their content, at enormous premiums, often to a new generation of rival streamers. Some may have laughed at the size of the checks they deposited, but soon enough it was clear, to paraphrase Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger, that they had been supplying third world countries with nuclear weapons. 

Then, of course, they found religion and reversed course. But the streaming journey has been humbling and expensive. Disney lost $659 million in its most recent quarter on its direct-to-consumer business (and that was a 26 percent improvement over the previous quarter). Warner Bros. Discovery finally exited its revenue hole on the D.T.C. front, posting adjusted EBITDA of $50 million last quarter compared to a loss of $227 million the year before. Comcast is projecting a “peak” loss of $3 billion in 2023 for Peacock. These companies are trying to cling to the profits of the Pay TV era, but those are declining faster and faster each quarter. It was Iger himself who said that companies tied to the linear and satellite businesses were in real trouble, but those pivoting to streaming sure aren’t in the clear, either.