Before there was cable, fiber optics, and the internet, in order for the general population to watch television, they utilized an outdoor antenna to thus bring into their living rooms, television programs. This meant that back in the day, people watched television for free, and since it obviously cost money for the broadcasters of those television programs, to not only setup the infrastructure in order to provide those programs to the population, but also for the costs so associated with the content of those programs; they then, in order to make their profit, meant that those broadcasters needed the revenue that they could collect from commercial advertisers, which were delighted for the opportunity to advertise their wares to a captive audience as well as on a large scale. Such a business model, worked out quite well for the likes of ABC, CBS, and NBC, of which, these three major networks still are quite strong and are still relevant in the 21st century.
To be clear, even today, those that have modern day antennas or their equivalency can still access the commercial broadcast content for free, as opposed to having to get such from the cable providers or via streaming. However, there are a multitude of people that prefer the convenience of accessing television programs via streaming such onto their smart phones or tablets. Some of the content so streamed, costs the consumer of such, money; and some of what is streamed, is free. It would seem, especially in consideration that commercial broadcasters have the economies of scale in their favor, that as long as they are receiving the bulk of their revenue through commercial advertising, that it would be in their best interests, to the degree possible, to concentrate more on increasing their viewership, in lieu of charging for such content accessed through streaming devices, which very well might decrease viewership, especially of those of the younger generation.
When it comes to commercial advertisers, the more actionable information that a given market can provide to them and the more specificity about that information so obtained, the more that this is of interest to them, for advertisers are in the business of soliciting in particular those that match the demographics that they find to be most desirable. So that, when those that stream commercial television onto their smart device, are required to register with that commercial television broadcaster, in which, that broadcaster, knows the gender of, the age of, the location of, along with all sorts of other data points, and in particular, what content this person is watching, then this would seem to be of immense value for those that are advertisers.
Commercial television has been around since 1941, and those that first staring watching television, do not watch commercial television in the same way as our present day youth. This signifies that in an age in which it never has been cheaper or easier to accumulate very specific information about individuals and their viewing habits, that those that are commercial broadcasters, should want to, as much as they have in their control, to increase their viewership in every way possible, and therefore, should be far less inclined to desire to actual charge for their content.