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ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars is one of TV’s biggest annual events. And yet the Walt Disney-owned network allowed some of the show’s sponsors to suggest to viewers that traditional TV was not what they ought to be viewing. The Oscars aren’t the only place where TV has allowed new-tech video rivals to take roost. It’s a move tantamount to a homeowner letting termites come into a house and gnaw at its innards.

The future of television in the United States may hinge, oddly enough, on the government’s interpretation of an 80-year-old law. Regulators are close to determining whether some internet TV services, like Sling TV and whatever Apple is planning, should be treated like more traditional pay TV services. The decision will have a large impact on what kind of programming is available in these new internet bundles and how they compete with other options.

This is the second shoe to drop from the announcement today about Dish Network’s carriage agreements with Turner and HBO. The satellite company says that its $20 a month Sling TV streaming service will also offer HBO for an additional $15 beginning before April 12, when the new season of Game Of Thrones premieres.

Comcast in recent days has told regulators in closed-door talks that the changing over-the-top landscape means it should not be required to distribute NBC programming to broadband rivals beyond January 2018, according to sources. With so many rivals — like Dish Network’s Sling TV, which launched Feb. 9 without NBC — content from Comcast’s NBCUniversal is not needed to succeed, Comcast brass told the FCC, the sources say.

New over-the-top (OTT) TV service consumers don’t have much patience. Around 75% of OTT users quit a video experience after more than four minutes, according to new study by video optimization company Conviva. Reasons include poor video streaming quality and/or excessive interruptions. Only one in four viewers makes it past the four-minute mark.

Starting at $50 a month, Vue offers more than 50 over-the-air and cable channels for online streaming. But you need a PlayStation game console and you still need Internet access — likely from the same cable company you’re trying to ditch. If you press, your pay-TV company might offer a slimmed-down TV package that’s comparable to Sony’s in price and lineup. Instead of a lower bill, what you get is an attempt to modernize how we watch TV.

Through TV Everywhere, CBS All Access and OTT services like Sony’s PlayStation Vue, the O&Os and affiliates are finally making the leap to broadband distribution. But the affiliates are still not entirely happy with the state of affairs because their streaming dreams are totally subject to the networks. Affiliates ability to dictate some terms may depend on an FCC proposal to regulate online video distributors.

Online television is taking off in a major way, and now some of the biggest providers are looking for assurances that they can keep delivering their content reliably. HBO,Showtime and Sony are reported to have all been speaking with internet providers, including Comcast, about the possibility of being treated as “specialized services,” separating them out from other internet traffic and essentially giving them a fast lane to consumers. Though fast lanes are explicitly prohibited under the FCC’s new net neutrality rules, these fast lanes actually fall in a strange gray area that’s yet to be explored.

Mohu — maker of a top-rated indoor HDTV antenna for cord-cutters who still want access to over-the-air channels — has released Moho Channels, a device intended to combine over-the-air, over-the-top and Web content in a single interface.

Apple made headlines this week with plans for an online TV service featuring 25 channels. Sony took the wraps off its PlayStation Vue video service. And HBO revealed plans to make its new online service, HBO Now, available directly to consumers on various devices. These are some pretty major developments, but we still have a ways to go before people can purchase only the channels they watch.

Sony, Apple and Dish are prepping lower-priced services. At this point, it looks a lot like a la carte is coming, whether the industry likes it or not, and it would be foolish not to see these moves by huge tech and telecommunication players as an attempt to supplant traditional cable plans. Smaller Web-based packages appear attractive to the consumer, largely because they look like cheaper cable subscriptions. But that’s not what they are.

Sony on Wednesday launched PlayStation Vue in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. Starting at $49.99 a month, the service offers more than 50 channels, including local CBS, Fox and NBC signals, and cable channels such as USA, TBS, Fox News and Discovery. Special features include the availability of the past three days of popular programming and personalization features based on a user’s viewing habits.

No single streaming service offers everything. And you still need to pay for your Internet connection, typically at a higher price when unbundled from your TV service. Depending on how and what you watch, cutting the cord won’t necessarily save you money. Here are things to consider.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bloodine, Daredevil and the return of Orange is the New Black mean Netflix is still the best spot in rapidly expanding OTT land.

Despite reports that NBCUniversal is not involved in negotiations for Apple’s upcoming subscription TV replacement service, NBC still hopes to arrive on the Apple TV as soon as the second half of 2015, according to a source with knowledge of NBC’s digital roadmap.

Apple Inc.’s lofty plans to build an online television service are coming into sharper focus, according to The Wall Street Journal. The technology giant is in talks with programmers to offer a slimmed-down bundle of TV networks this fall, according to people, say people familiar with the matter. The service would have about 25 channels, anchored by broadcasters including ABC, CBS and Fox, and would cost $30-$45 a month. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

Tribune Broadcasting will deliver online video reports from 30 of its TV stations to users of Watchup, a startup whose service delivers personalized newscasts to Internet-video devices. Tribune Media last fall led a $2.75 million round of funding in Watchup. Watchup users now can access local news segments from stations including KTLA Los Angeles, WGN Chicago and WPIX New York.

CBS affiliates’ “piece of the action” for participating in the CBS All Access OTT service is up to $1 per sub per month, according to a “template” agreement between the network and the affiliate board. CBS is offering the service in its O&O markets for $5.99 a month.

If you are thinking about dropping your cable/satellite subscription — and really, who isn’t? — one of the necessary exercises is to figure out what network shows you will lose easy access to, and, significantly, how many of them you can get via subscription online video on demand outlets.

HBO and ESPN have long been cited as a chief reason people keep their pay TV bundles, amid a growing practice of “cord cutting.” But last month, Dish started making ESPN available as part of a $20-a-month online television package called Sling TV. Now, HBO will offer its movies and shows over the Internet for $15 a month. Here are some things to know before you rush out to cancel your cable service.

The Apple Watch stole the spotlight at the tech company’s media extravaganza Monday. But it was an announcement at the same event, made by HBO, that marks a true turning point. “This is the moment,” said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. “We’ll look back and say this was when the game was fundamentally changed.”

Apple and HBO announced a deal today. Starting in early April, the $14.99 monthly service HBO Now will let users stream HBO movies and TV shows on iPads, iPhones and Apple TV — without having to sign up for a cable subscription at all. This is the first time that HBO is allowing for standalone service.

NBCUniversal is preparing to launch a subscription digital comedy service aimed at millennial viewers who watch hours of entertainment on digital devices rather than the old-school TV. NBC’s proposed over-the-top service is expected to launch later this year, according to two executives familiar with the plans

Apple is reportedly in talks with TV executives about deals that would allow it to offer an OTT pay TV service like Dish’s Sling TV. Talks seem to be in the early stages, with issues like timing and pricing far from ironed out, and Apple won’t comment on the effort.

Over the last several years,companies like Netflix and Aereo have started to chip away at the traditional cable model, leading to incremental change across the industry, writes Braxton Jarrett, CEO of Clearleap. Recent announcements of streaming services from HBO and CBS are a clear indicator that the pace of change is about to drastically speed up, and what was once a slow-moving evolution is getting a shot in the arm.

CBS News chief David Rhodes talks about the network’s decision to launch a streaming news service — CBSN — as part of a strategy to uphold his network’s brand and format while also attracting the viewers that will keep it in business decades from now.

The migration of TV to platforms like the Internet represents a “massive transition in technology, user interfaces and the nature” of the television industry, says FX CEO John Landgraf. “As long as we and others are able to innovate and invest, it’s great for the consumer” since competition will result in “the best possible work.”

CBS wants you to watch more of The Good Wife and Blue Bloods — even if you don’t use the company’s broadcast-television network to do it. The company is readying a promotional blitz for its newly launched All Access subscription-video-on-demand service on the broadcast network and across its many digital properties..

“We could say fairly definitively, sometime in ’15, there will be some service from Showtime,” Moonves, president-CEO of CBS, said during the company’s earnings call with analysts.

Heavy video streaming may not necessarily be cannibalizing traditional pay TV — it may be helping out in some cases, according to one survey. A report from Kantar’s TNS media consultancy, says that “while streamers are more likely than non-streamers to downgrade their level of traditional pay TV service — 9% versus 6% — they are also more likely to upgrade their level of service — 16% versus 6%. And of those that make improvements? Those consumers who many pay TV providers fear losing — young viewers and millennials.

As Internet-video options proliferate, consumers will have a growing list of reasons to stop paying $90 or more per month for multichannel television. And the jockeying is now under way among programmers and distributors to prep the life rafts if viewers decide to jump en masse.

American Cable Association President Matthew Polka: “The arrival of CBS All Access means at least two positive developments: The forces in favor of consumer choice have won the debate and critics like TVFreedom need to find a new agenda because it is impossible for broadcasters to explain how it’s possible to be ‘just a little a la carte.’ “

Next up to jump on the unbundling bandwagon may be Starz: The premium cable channel is planning to launch an online-only subscription service in international markets over the coming months, and Starz CEO Chris Albrecht suggested during the company’s earnings call Thursday that it will likely do the same in the U.S.

The new streaming offerings from HBO and CBS are early signs that regular television is the new AM radio, writes Kevin Maney in Newsweek. The forces at work, driven by the Internet and data, add up to a giant generational shift toward a 21st century, free-form, urban, mobile lifestyle and away from the schedules, structures, suburbs, offices and marriages of the post-World War II era. In this new environment, the old model of broadcast TV will last about as long as an ice cube in a freshly poured glass of bourbon.

NBCU CEO Steve Burke’s statement that he was surprised at the moves by HBO and CBS to offer streaming services is a bit surprising for a few reasons, one being that neither service came completely out of left field. And contrary to Burke, HBO and CBS aren’t likely to cannabalize their cable revenue or find the online distribution business particularly tough.