If any player recognizes a tectonic shift, it’s HBO. Expanding the premium channel’s audience beyond cable “is the most exciting inflection point in HBO history,” CEO Richard Plepler declared in announcing cable-untethered HBO. “Just the threat of going over-the-top gives us additional leverage.”

How might streaming HBO impact Comcast, Verizon, DirecTV and the rest of the herd of pay TV giants? A recent Parks Associates survey found that 17% of U.S. households likely would subscribe to the standalone streaming network. Of the respondents planning to subscribe, half indicated they would drop pay TV for HBO over-the-top.

The mood of pay TV and broadcast executives would brighten considerably with audience-tracking tools suited to post-linear TV. If there’s one consensus in the ecosystem, it is that viewership isn’t measured across the universe of platforms and digital devices. The vast majority of the missing viewers are apparently millennials.

From the article "Running Scared: Why The Specter Of Post-Linear TV Haunts Media Executives" by Johnnie L. Roberts.

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