What would happen if all -- or a massive level of -- legacy, live TV subscribers with cable, satellite, telco or virtual pay TV services suddenly jumped in greater numbers off those services?

Yet another TV network blackout issue has occurred with DirecTV -- a top-five legacy pay TV service -- and Walt Disney, a major TV network group.

This event that happens every other year or so seems to occur as the start of a new TV season among major TV networks groups and big pay TV network services. 

Typically, it focuses around high-profile sports content, college football or NFL football, around the Labor Day holiday.

Fervent live sports fans cannot do with live TV sports programming this time of year. Time-shifted, library, scripted or unscripted programming is not an immediate concern-- especially in this easy access streaming world.  

It’s a double-edged sword. Both TV sides of the equation are in danger of making enemies. 

DirecTV houses around 11 million subscribers -- a hefty piece of the legacy, live TV networks' tradition where around 60 million to 70 million subscribers continue to have these services.

This all comes amid around 10% annual subscriber declines due to now persistent cord-cutting. And bigger disruptions could be coming. 

DirecTV is seemingly "all in," forcing major TV network groups to agree to allow them to offer more "flexible" smaller and cheaper network packages. Perhaps DirecTV also wants what Charter Communications now has with Disney -- to sell streaming services alongside traditional, live TV networks.

In the meantime, with the TV network blackouts ongoing, sports-hungry consumers do have alternatives -- short or long term.

Peacock (NBCUniversal), Paramount+ (CBS Television Network), Disney+, Hulu. and ESPN+ (ABC and ESPN) would get you most of the way there with sports content that for the most part runs concurrently on linear TV. Adding in Amazon Prime Video for “Thursday Night Football” would surely help as well.

TV blackouts can be like minor earthquakes that seem to wake up consumers every time they occur. Up until now, however, we only hear their bark, not bite. 

Still, continuing cracks in the system now signal a more immediate danger in the legacy TV world.

More acceptable flexible streaming access (and cancellation) -- across all types of subscription services -- could be key.

Having a Netflix, Spotify, Peloton, or perhaps Match (or other dating apps) where consumers go off and on might make these media quakes easier to deal with.

But don’t get too optimistic. Streaming platforms pricing isn’t going down.

TV streaming continues to be a fluid marketplace.