Are social media functions the secret sauce for OTT? Philo, a new digital package of live, linear TV networks sans broadcasting or sports channels, believes this is the key to success.

If advertisers pull ads from a show because of content, they might be subject to a "reverse TV advertising boycott." In short, consumers smashing your products to show their displeasure.

The right consumer price for future OTT platforms that compete with Netflix seems clear -- start lower. But determining the right marketing message is far more tricky.

Roku, the biggest OTT set-top-box maker, pulled in $125 million in overall third-quarter revenue, up 40% from the same period a year ago and double the amount since the start of 2017.

The U.S. Justice Department reportedly wants AT&T to sell off Time Warner's Turner unit -- which includes cable TV networks, CNN, TBS and TNT -- should it complete its $85 billion deal. And perhaps even more.

Adding more mature media content will help Disney. But so would some international assets. Fox might agree to sell its big Star India network operation -- a massive 650 million-home operation -- as well as its 39% stake in BSkyB.

In an age of increasingly partisan TV news programming, viewers' input apparently can take on a different value for TV executives as they make advertising decisions.

In its most recent third-quarter financial period, E. W. Scripps' TV stations lost 2% to 3% in subscribers coming from traditional multichannel video program distributors.

Even with declines across many TV programming areas -- including the NFL, which has seen viewing falloff this year, TV networks are still paying high-priced billion-dollar renewals of big sports franchises.

If you have a specific local market TV or radio studio to report your local TV news, you don't need it anymore, per the FCC. But no worries -- media owners won't necessarily be closing up shop anytime soon. The future is another matter.