This is August, so it must be time to discuss the death of television. The demise of the flickering box in your living room has been predicted pretty much since it became the mass market product of the baby-boomer period of the 1950s and 1960s.

All of us have grown up with TV. It remains as vital as ever as a means of entertainment and education. The only difference is that the programmes we watch come from a greater number of channels.

This much was the story of multi-channel TV, heralded by the huge growth of cable and satellite broadcasting since the 1990s. Today that story has shifted to become one about platforms and digital convergence. New players have emerged, supposedly intent on undermining behemoths like the BBC, ITV and Sky.

Tomorrow the industry will gather in Edinburgh for its annual festival, and the buzz will be about the future of conventional TV as it is confronted by new competitors such as Apple, Netflix and Amazon Prime. These are wealthy competitors, certainly, but can they really “kill” TV?

The box in the corner remains as powerful as ever. And it is also, physically, getting bigger and bigger. The average size of a domestic set is heading for 65ins, just a decade after a 40in TV seemed huge. Those TVs are far more powerful than their predecessors in terms of quality, connectivity with other devices and – of course – the outside world.

It is this connectivity that is really threatening conventional TV, but what evidence is there that it might actually kill it? TV is one medium that continues to adapt to technological change quickly, transforming itself over decades from the “dumb terminal” in your living room into a box that will barely shut up and leave you alone.

Producers continue to find a market for their content. The difference is in the means of delivery. So young people watch more video via social media on their tablets and mobiles than on TV? So what, if they are watching anyway?

The real concern for commercial TV operators is that, if fewer people watch conventional TV, advertisers will expect reduced rates. In fact, the VHS tape and its digital successors have enabled viewers to fast-forward through ads for years.

Ironically, the non-linear video platforms – YouTube, for instance – make it harder to escape advertising in this way.

There is a lot of talk about today’s young adults, the “millennials”, and their supposed lack of loyalty to TV. The majority consume media content on mobile devices rather than the conventional box. There is no evidence to suggest they will actually spend less money in the longer term. They are simply using devices in different ways from their parents’ generation. Subscriptions to NetFlix, Hulu and the other digital services still cost money.

It is money that will guide the future direction of TV as its move online accelerates. The so-called revolution in platforms and content providers will witness a shake-out sooner or later. New intruders like Amazon Prime may appear to have money to burn, but they cannot burn it forever in pursuit of the TV audience.