In the old days, someone who wanted to send you this kind of content would build and sell hardware for you to receive and play it (like a DVD player).
Online streaming services have, in part, scaled so quickly because they run on the general-purpose computers that people already own. So they don't need to bear that hardware cost. These general purpose computers have been fertile soil to grow and nurture the seeds that software companies scatter to the winds.
How interesting it would be if it comes full circle with specialized hardware being required on each PC to receive the content stream.
