Monday, February 13, 2006

Cable TV Model Broken

Or so claims the Red Herring. I tend to agree. The cable industry is fighting the idea of a la carte channels, of course, because its clear that subscriber-bills will go down. The latest won't-someone-please-think-of-the-children (WSPTOTC) reasoning rings pretty hollow: breaking up channels will lead to the end of avant-garde programming. Riiiight. They're suddenly concerned about independent film-makers.

The truth is, the digital-evolution of content and services like Google Video are pushing fringe-offerings. Plus, the availability of very specialized content online is a huge opportunity (let us, again, thank the Gods of Television for www.cycling.tv. Thank you).

I do wonder, though, about the government's moves in regard to cable. I mean--what do they care? How come the government is so concerned about us having good TV? To be fair, this is a big, popular industry--and it warrants care, observation and (potential) intervention. But it also is not a real-necessity right? Its not heating-oil.
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