By obsoleting the forums, it's certainly a move away from community contributors, and towards a for-profit business. Not sure how you expect this to be "profitable" when you drive away the people who update/maintain core site functionality (product).
Only glimmer of hope I see is talk about "free" subscriptions for contributors. Hopefully this is clearly defined and transparent moving forward.
A few quotes from Wikipedia about TheTBDB:
"TheTVDB.com is a community driven database of television shows. All content and images on the site have been contributed by the site's users; the site uses moderated editing to maintain its own standards."
Best"The stated aim to be the most complete and accurate source of information on TV series from many languages and countries. It provides a repository of series, season and episode images that can be used in various types of Home theater PC software to make the visual interface experience more appealing"