From the very start, the aim of the advertising-supported web was to beat television. A quarter of a century later, it's time to be honest about it: they failed.

The Internet, which really means Google and Facebook, has clearly won the battle with newspapers for classified ads of all types.

Television, however, is a different story. Television may be broadcasting via the Internet, like Netflix does. And it is watched on smaller screens, like those of an iPad.

But television is alive and kicking. While the web was getting flooded with low quality content, television was able to reinvent itself and now has two separate lines of business.

On the one hand, Pay TV. Free TV channels now broadcast fewer and mostly older films.

The same is true for TV series and professional sports: If you're interested, you pay.

On the other hand, television's quality content enables them to attract quality advertisers, many of whom have come to have very serious doubts about online advertising. [1]