You're right about the times changing. But "the industry" has good reason to be concerned - in a world where people don't pay for their product (or certain aspects of it), they won't keep making that product. And I share their concern - I love movies/music/television/etc., and I'd really hate to live in a world without them.
Your "concern" is a red herring. Revenues are steadily and broadly marching upward for the content industries, especially in areas where they have (been forced to) adapt to the changing times, e.g. mp3 sales, ebooks, on-demand movies, etc. It happened decades ago with audio tapes and VHS, and it'll happen again.
You are sort-of right about one thing: people won't pay for the overpriced legacy products to which Big Content clings, and those products will eventually die. Good riddance.
What if a hundred million people paid US$ 1 to help James Cameron make Avatar? Would you pay US$ 10 to help making a sequel to Tron with the creative freedom a Disney movie would never be able to enjoy? Just plug Kickstarter into Facebook and you have the tools to do it.
Without Disney overhead, I doubt it would cost US$ 170 million.
It's 10 years since Metallica sued Napster. We just had a major motion picture (The Social Network), set in the past, where this event is in the past in the film.
If piracy could kill the music industry, it would have killed it by now. The music industry is not dead. Ergo piracy will not kill it.
If PBS decided to ask for donations through some kickstarter like site (or through kickstarter) I'd be more than happy to donate some money. And, mind you, I don't even live in the US - I would probably have to download their programming.
