But recent missteps by technology companies like Google with its Google TV service, as well as the often confusing mosaic of streaming and download providers, has left the market looking a little muddled.
But it may be even more meaningful for the telecom sector as a whole, where mergers between service providers have left only a few carriers to buy hardware from many vendors.
This project noted a very high attrition rate, with 32% of providers having left their original work sites – overall, 24.6% were no longer in the public sector.
The £8bn plus takeover bid for the country's second biggest mortgage and savings provider, Abbey, has left customers wondering what the change might mean and shareholders asking what's in it for them.
The exchange was the latest development in a contentious public battle between the No. 1 rated U.S. broadcast network and the No. 2 cable provider that has left millions of customers unable to watch the summer hit "Under the Dome" and live sports that airs on CBS such as golf.
Last week's revelation of the NSA's PRISM scheme, a pervasive Internet surveillance system facilitated by nine major U.S.-based Internet content providers (the PRISM Nine) has left the online world reeling.
Inadequate access to treatment services and providers all over the country, has left families of the mentally ill picking up the burden, and the cost, of providing care.
It's a grim tale of boom and bust that has left care providers, who shelter Britain's most vulnerable residents, in crisis.
In some cases, this has left housing providers struggling to meet interest payments and forcing the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to keep a careful eye on the viability of businesses with millions in stock mortgaged to the hilt.
This has left health care providers and patients with the difficult task of choosing from the wide variety of glucose-lowering interventions currently available.
