We Now Disrupt This Broadcast: How Cable Transformed Television and the Internet Revolutionized It All

Cable television channels were once the backwater of American television, programming recent and not-so-recent movies and reruns of network shows. Then came , , and . And then, just as “prestige cable” became a category, came and Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, and other Internet distributors of television content. What happened? In Amanda Lotz chronicles the collision of new technologies, changing business strategies, and innovative storytelling that produced an era termed “peak TV.” Lotz explains that changes in the business of television expanded the creative possibilities of television. She describes the costly infrastructure rebuilding undertaken by cable service providers in the late 1990s and the struggles of cable channels to produce (and pay for) original, scripted programming in order to stand out from the competition. These new programs defied television conventions and made viewers adjust their expectations of what television could be. offered cable's first antihero, cost more than advertisers paid, became the first mass cable hit, and was the first global television blockbuster. Internet streaming didn't kill cable, Lotz tells us. Rather, it revolutionized how we watch television. Cable and network television quickly established their own streaming portals. Meanwhile, cable service providers had quietly transformed themselves into Internet providers, able to profit from both prestige cable and streaming services. Far from being dead, television continues to transform.