In an article in Forbes it says that because of the growth of smartphones, one day TV stations will be kicked from the airwaves and their signal will be delivered via the Internet only. 

The story states that broadcast TV reaches 87% of the world’s population, distribution has traditionally required the use of gargantuan terrestrial wireless transmitters that deliver programming to national and regional audiences.

But broadcast television can also be distributed using the internet, mainly to homes that have fixed broadband connections, and also to mobile devices.

If we look at the trends, we are led to one inescapable conclusion: eventually, the radio spectrum that is being used by TV broadcasters worldwide will be reallocated to mobile operators and TV broadcasters will have to distribute all of their TV programming via the internet.

It's all because of mobile phones.

Five years ago, in 2010, the number of individuals who owned a mobile phone had already exceeded the total number of TV sets.

By 2018 there will be as many smartphone users in the world as TV sets. And beyond that point, TV set penetration will start levelling off as ongoing cost reductions will allow smartphone penetration to continue to increase.

It can be argued that the value that the economy is placing on mobile broadband service is already more than broadcast television service, and that this value gap will grow as the mobile industry continues to develop.

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