Danielle N Buerger

I don’t think traditional airlines’ failure to continually innovate leaves them at risk of being taken over. They are far too ingrained in the world’s infrastructure to be seriously damaged. They have a great deal of social and political power that would make it very hard to be displaced. Perhaps airline innovations could take off (hehe) and find a healthy market, but it would not be at the expense of the traditional airline. The start-ups would find difficulties in the vast compliance involved, the existing flight schedules and how not to interfere with them, and getting space in airports, among other obstacles.

I believe airlines are susceptible to being disrupted in their current state but I’m not sure if this is the one to disrupt the industry. A large capability of current airlines is a large amount of people they’re able to transport. Business class supersonic jets could be a possibility for the rich playboys but wouldn’t have enough of an impact on airlines current main source of revenue. I could see these start-ups running into problems with finding space in major airports, along with policies and laws about flying transportation in public airspaces.

I can see start-ups running into a major obstacle when trying to enter the market: a lack of logistics compared to the large, established airlines. Right now, everyone has the same technology (more or less) for their airplanes, so they need to make their money elsewhere, like in economies of scale and long established airport usage agreements. If NASA and new aerospace manufacturers get their way, the airline industry will be hit with a new market disruption in the 2020s because of quiet supersonic planes that make sonic booms about as loud as a car door closing instead of thunder (see link). The new market will be supersonic flights over land instead of being limited to going supersonic over the ocean like the Concorde. These new planes will go about 3 times faster than current airliners, so businesses will most likely send their employees to meetings on the other side of the planet more often.

Within the airline industry there is a significant barrier to entry, with incredibly high costs preventing entry without significant amounts of capital. But, as is evidenced by companies like Southwest and JetBlue it can be done. It is also worth noting that many of the major airlines are seen in an incredibly negative light (poor customer service, excessive delays, brutally removing passengers) as is the whole process of flying since 9/11. If a company like on you described in your post were able to penetrate the market it could very easily disrupt the entire industry, and force incumbents to move their technology forward or go defunct.

i think the technological advancements in broadcasting TV have already disrupted the cable industry because many people are switching to internet-based platforms due to cheaper rates and the fact that they also offer mobility. A method cable companies could use to compete against internet-based streaming platforms is to allow consumers to pick which channels they want for reduced pricing, so, like pay per view, it would be pay per channel. I think people don’t like the fact that they pay a lot for cable only to watch a couple of different channels out of the hundreds that are offered and this could fix that.

Traditional cable’s monopoly over consumers days are numbered. Streaming services have proven to be a highly disruptive technology to traditional cable. The future of TV will be structured as more of a SaaS, wherein customers will only pay for things they are using. Agreeing with the comment above, customers are tired of paying for 100+ channels when they only watch 5 of them. For cable companies to better position themselves, they will need to radically overhaul their current paradigm. A cable subscription should be similar to a Netflix account, where a user can enable cable onto as many devices as they need and watch live TV anywhere at anytime. If they don’t do this, a disruptive technology (a la Sling) will emerge and take over the market, making people laugh at how cable once operated.

It is my first time hearing about the cable subscription Youtube may be providing in the future and I definitely believe that this can cause a disruption in how we view television. In early November, I decided to downgrade my Comcast service to Internet only. I found myself paying a high cable/internet bill when I was spending a majority of my time watching movies and shows online. I also purchased a “Google Chromecast” which always me to stream anything I watch online straight to my tv.

During my internship at Comcast NBCUniversal, I spoke with a VP in my department who was concerned about this very problem. He described a short-term solution for Comcast was launching Netflix on the X1 platform. This is done in hopes of being able to still attract and retain consumers by offering Comcast tv services and access to Netflix.

I agree with the other comments, the cable industry has already been penetrated by disruptive innovation. A majority of people under 48 already do not own a cable subscription. The way to survive these changes seem to be either partnering up with these services or providing one themselves. I don’t think there’s a question of whether these capabilities are possible, seeing how there’s things like Comcast TV already, but rather how to price these models appealingly. Comcast TV allows the users to watch their subscriptions in a web browser but it seems users prefer a simplified model like Netflix. Maybe this is what cable companies should be doing, simplify their product and provide a transparent subscription with no hidden fees.

TV Cable Subscriber Statistics

Until streaming services are able to broadcast live sports games consistently and without blackouts (not going to happen anytime soon) cable will still continue to be a thing. But that being said, cable companies must change their services offerings to slow the exodus of customers away from their cable service. Picking and choosing channels is good solution, but other creative solutions must be thought of for Cable to stay competitive. At this point though I believe streaming will eventually overtake cable and traditional cable will become a thing of the past.