Streaming services have grown so popular that television production companies are starting to get nervous about overfeeding them.

As users get more used to finding what they want to watch via streaming, they are getting increasingly less dependent on traditional cable and satellite pay-TV operators, who pay networks and producers millions of dollars for the privilege of carrying them. Should all that traffic head over to streaming, producers will lose much of the revenue from those pay-TV services and it’s unlikely that income from the streaming services will make up the difference.

A story Monday by the Associated Press, reminded us that Time Warner is considering doing just that, holding back most recent episodes of its best product, such as DC Comics’ Flash, Arrow and Supergirl, which air on The CW and CBS.

That could have real impact on Hulu, in whom Time Warner is in talks to invest. The Wall Street Journal reported in November that one of the sticking points of that proposed deal is that Time Warner wants to restrict Hulu from offering most-current episodes of shows. Hulu currently offers four of a Fox series’ most-recent episodes, down from a previous high of eight, according the AP. In many cases, viewers have to wait from eight days to a month to see the latest episode of a given show.

The other two major streaming services — Netflix and Amazon — generally don’t offer current seasons of acquired shows. For its part, Netflix seems to be backing off of acquired product in favor of originals in order to have more control over how that content is distributed. Netflix is the only one of these services to offer itself globally, and it’s easier to control rights on content it owns.

Still, in the past year, pay-TV subscriptions have only declined 1 percent drop over the past year, and some 98.3 million U.S. households subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

Brief Take: As streaming becomes the mode of choice for young viewers, in particular, TV’s business models are struggling to keep up.

Read more: The Associated Press via The Chicago Tribune

[Image courtesy of the Association Press via The Chicago Tribune]

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