Could linear TV rise again?

[WillPS]

Disagree about non-live channels - with archive stuff especially curating content is still so important, even if it is a window to the online services.    For example the last couple of weeks I've found myself watching One Foot in the Grave nightly at 6pm/7pm on Drama (+1).    That's been available to me on demand for ages through the iPlayer (and probably Gold) and I've just not even contemplated it, but caught an episode when channel hopping a couple of weeks ago and it suddenly fits into the teatime routine nicely.

Whether you like it or not, eventually such channels won't be economically viable. I haven't looked at Drama's ratings in particular but there's no escaping the fact that ratings are going down across the board.

most of the justification for 4G and 5G has been to broadcast and stream video content (but of course with greater flexibility and other factors too)

I think you have that twisted.