This synopsis of Michael Wolff's book is so far off the mark, it seems Mr. Weisberg missed the point. I found the book to be far more nuanced, intelligent and provocative than the Mr. Weisberg would have you believe. And I'm someone who's heavily invested in the idea that the eponymous Internet, in terms of the battle royale mentioned in the headline of this post, will win. Of course, when it's put that way, I think Michael Wolff would agree.

The "Television" Wolff refers to is the business, not the device. Or as Wolff states:

"TV the business model derives revenue from content pushed through a distribution network also called 'TV.' The health of the distribution channel is a vastly different issue from the health of the businesses using it.

"Of all the bets to make, perhaps the least safe one--and the bet underpinning digital's hopes of grabbing a meaningful piece of television's revenues--is that people will stop watching TV, even if they stop watching THE TV."

What Wolff is addressing is the argument that YouTube and Facebook could kill the industry creating "professionally made, scripted narratives." His argument is that YouTube and Facebook's business models are essentially selling advertising and nothing attracts advertising dollars nearly as well as high quality, professionally produced content. User generated content, on the other hand, will never have the same value to advertisers in large part because there is just too much of it. If YouTube and Facebook want to grab a piece of TV's revenues, then they need to get in the Television business--or more precisely, in the business of creating exclusive professional, scripted narrative content. In doing so, they'll help fund the existing institution consisting of writers, directors, producers and actors that are currently in the Television business.

Michael Wolff sees cord-cutters dropping cable television in favor of Netflix as proof rather than an anomaly. "Digital Convergence," Wolff states, "turns out not so much to be about bringing computing to your television but about bringing more television to your television." After all, when Netflix needed a break-through television series in a competitive landscape that was becoming increasingly commoditized, they turned to well known and well established Hollywood talent in the form of David Fincher and Kevin Spacey. Netflix, a tech company, became a traditional stodgy television company.

Wolff's ideas around bundling are incredibly provocative and worthy of discussion. To him, the current iteration of cable bundling is inevitably doomed. And what will replace it? Different, more efficient, more transparent bundles. After all, aren't Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go and Sling their own forms of a bundle?

Regarding the cable companies, they of course own the high speed connections necessary to receive the new form of Television. It turns out that they will be just fine as well.

Bottom line, Television is the New Television is a challenging read. You'd be wrong to dismiss it for being the same old story where the horse has already left the barn. If you can digest the nuance and complexity of his argument, I think you'd agree it's a little ahead of it's time even if it sounds at first like anything but.