People are so quick to forget. Back when Netflix came out it’s appeal was offering movies for viewing online. People scoffed at it because TV was king and Netflix wasn’t on TV yet, smart TVs weren’t a thing and Roku had to be built as a middleman. “Why would I pay for that”. No one believed in the products in the way that people believe in Netflix and YouTube or Google or even twitter today.
Today every tv is smart, YouTube has a YouTube TV app, all these media companies have their own apps like paramount and ESPN, and people are willing to pay.