The Disruptors: Streaming television

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Massive leaps in internet and cell phone technology have changed the TV industry more in the past 15 years, than in the previous 50.

Disrupt means to interrupt the normal course or drastically alter a significant change. Disruptors are the ones responsible for making these changes. It is happening right in front our eyes in the television industry.

Roku CEO and founder Anthony Wood is definitely a disruptor. His company Roku upended the television industry. In 2008, the Silicon Valley mogul launched the first Roku device to stream Netflix to the TV. Roku is now in 13 million households. In 2016, Roku customers streamed 9 billion hours of video, nearly double the 5.5 billion streamed in 2015.

Ron Simon is a curator for the Paley Center for Media in New York City and an expert on the history and evolution of the television industry. He says the streaming services -- such as Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix have totally transformed how we think of the television experience. The whole idea of how you watch television has changed from a communal experience, such as family entertainment, to something that can be seen anywhere and at any time.

So it is not just where we watch, but how we watch and when we watch and how often. Peter Naylor is senior VP of advertising sales at Hulu. He says now the consumer is in control of almost everything: where to watch -- TV, mobile, desktop, tablet, desktop; whenever -- because it is all on demand; and how -- one episode at a time or in a binge.

Hulu is another disruptor. (Hulu was founded in part by 21st Century Fox, the owner of Fox 5 News/Fox5NY.com.) It is an on-demand streaming platform for movies, TV shows, and short-form clips.

Another disruptor to TV is who is producing what we watch. Streaming services are producing content. This year, Amazon's original film "Manchester by the Sea" and Netflix's "The Crown" were nominated for major awards.

So what is the next disruptor for the television business? Insiders say more of us will stream everything we watch. And advertisers will learn our habits and what we like and don't like and more about us than ever before.