Maybe I should have used my mother as a better example. My father died in 2017. My mother does get very lonely as not only has she now lost her husband, but unfortunately almost all of her friends have now 'passed on' To her, and millions of other people, watching tv, or having it on in the background is her main human contact. Having TV or radio on as it is broadcast, even if only say 20% of your attention is focussed on it as you do other things, is a form of human contact with the rest of the world. There are millions of people in the western world just like her in this regard.
This form of 'human contact is absent when one is watching a DVD or something streamed or downloaded. This is invaluable to a large number of people, especially as about a third of households in the UK (and similar nations) consist of one person. When I visit her, she almost always has Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on. (Or whoever is covering for them). I personally would rather have the stereo on, but this is her human contact. I think it would be a mistake to do away with broadcast TV.
Maybe this is straying from the original idea of the thread, but I did notice some people advocating a shift away from broadcast TV, to people essentially streaming from a database.
I personally like to watch classic shows when they are broadcast, eg Porridge, Fawlty Towers, Blakes 7, Brittas Empire, The Goodies, OFAH, Minder, The Sweeney, etc. I am more than aware that virtually all of these are available on DVD or platforms such a Netflix, iPlayer, Youtube etc, but it is in my nature to 'reach out and grab' these programmes when they are shown. (I just wish that the broadcasting channels didn't cut them so much)
