Thirty-one years ago, cable TV pioneer John Malone predicted customers would have as many as 500 channels in their living rooms.
Charter, the cable company in which Malone’s Liberty Broadband is a major investor, began downscaling that vision this week.
The agreement on Monday to settle an epic battle between Walt Disney and Charter Communications over distribution rights is ushering the end of the lucrative, decades-old pay-television bundle and creating a template for future deals that includes streaming services, nine current and former senior media executives who have worked on these agreements said this week.