Cable news is careening toward a defining moment

Cable news, as a medium, is careening toward a defining moment that could transform it significantly or return it to the status quo of the past decade.

Several key questions could be answered in the near future. Will Fox News stabilize and return to dominance, or will a conservative rival snag Bill O'Reilly and maybe even Sean Hannity and become a viable competitor? Hannity has said on Twitter that he is under contract for the next four years, but he, like other Fox News stars, is widely reported to have a “key man clause” in the deal. That would allow him to leave early in the event of an exit by a “key man,” such as Shine or former chairman Roger Ailes. Could a Fox News disrupter come from the left instead of the right? Networks and the big-name personalities that fill their air have some major decisions to make — ones that will go a long way toward determining whether the future of cable news looks familiar or radically different.