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Easier said than done. Unlike online, which has had a relatively seamless and simple-to-use tool for identifying, targeting and serving ads to individual users -- browser-based cookies -- TV’s infrastructure is old, convoluted and has so far lacked that kind of audience targeting precision.

One of the big obstacles, he says, is that unlike online where cookies have enabled such targeting and buying, TV wasn’t able to do it until a sizeable addressable TV advertising infrastructure was put in place. Based on its most recent contracts with TV distributors, Invidi claims to have agreements to distribute its addressable TV ad technology in about 80% of the non-over-the-air TV advertising marketplace.

What would Robbins be doing if he was in charge of Nickelodeon in 2013, for example, to respond to changing habits of their audience, and disruptive competition from the YouTube world? "The one thing that I would do: I don't think they make enough content. If you look at the primetime schedule on most of those networks, there are three to four original shows on, and it's not enough. It used to be enough when there were only two channels, but now with a mobile and a tablet, I have so many choices," said Robbins.

"That's the big problem: the model is broken. Their shows are relatively expensive to make, so they can only afford to make a certain number of them. So they are sort of stuck, and until they figure out how to change that model, you're going to see the audience keep eroding."

children are still sitting on their sofas watching videos, but the source is now YouTube and the devices are smartphones and tablets. "It's not just my kids, or kids in the US. It's kids everywhere," said Robbins, adding that half his company's views come from outside the US, and that half its views and comments come from mobile devices.

Twitter's Brown says the idea of posting real-time video on mobile devices via Twitter has created "lots of interest from advertising networks" for sports and non-sports events.

The idea of an online player taking over has affirmed cable and satellite companies' positions in the landscape and made all players realize what they could lose by rocking the boat, said Brannon.

The prospect of new tech competitors reiterated how important the traditional distributors are -- with their massive subscriber bases -- to media companies, who need as many people watching their programming as possible -- all while measuring how many of them there are -- in order to raise ad rates, he said.

average U.S. consumer packs in nearly 60 hours of media content each week, and more than half of that -- 35.1 hours -- is traditional television, according to Nielsen's latest cross platform report.

amount of time spent watching traditional TV has shrunk from a year earlier, supplanted by more time spent watching video on the Internet, game consoles, and mobile phones.

As Intel proved, the easy part was creating a new technology to deliver television with a user interface that beats cable and satellite. Test versions of OnCue have been deployed in Intel employees' homes for months. The hard part is content. Be it TV shows, sports programs, or live events, content is expensive to produce and it's expensive to license.

Other findings included that 87 percent of people want to be able to get more perspective on a story by seeing through a particular character’s eyes or changing the point-of-view altogether and switch to a different character.

91% say narratives with a “real-time” story-world would motivate them to tune in more often to ensure they weren’t missing anything,” the report said.

41 percent of people use a second screen at least once per week while watching TV. Additionally, 67 percent say that using a second screen to interact with TV content would increase their overall TV viewing. The most popular second screen activities while watching TV tended to be goal-oriented, such as earning rewards (80% interested), voting to decide a show’s outcome (79%), or making a purchase (76%).

92 percent of respondents agreed that there was a “a real opportunity for brands to make ads feel more like a story or a game that they’d naturally choose to engage with”

people want a more immersive story-telling experience across different devices, and one in which characters continue to live out their lives,