Triumph
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,031
- 14
- 81
The content distributors are the ones making money off requiring TV subscriptions, not the studios. The studios would make just as much from an online streaming service as they would from Comcast et al. The problem is, they have existing agreements with Comcast et al. that won't let them stream.
I remember back in the earlier days of cable, the plug for the service was, "No commercials!", I mean why would you pay for a service if you still had to "pay" for it with commercials? Yeah you got better reception, but the no commercial gimmic just sort of went away. So yeah, the cable companies aren't necessarily adding any value, they're providing a distribution service that no one else could match. Now that they have competition through the internet for distributing TV shows, they're getting their panties in a bunch. And like the RIAA and MPAA, instead of fighting in the markets, they'll try to fight it in the courts and Congress.