The RF Settop box is still quite useful in the eyes of many providers. When you are broadcasting the same information to large numbers of people (which is what is done by Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, Cablevision, as well as other domestic and many other overseas providers), the RF settop box cannot be beat in terms of bandwidth available for getting lots of content out at all times.
The grey area comes in with the whole advent of "On Demand." Technically, if no one is interested in watching "TV shows" and people only want to be able to say to themselves, "Hmmm I feel like watching such-and-such" and go to their computer and pick a show and download it, then in such instances, RF-settops are not quite as useful.
The "halfway point" between "On-Demand" and "shows just being on TV" is of course the DVR (digital video recorder) which lets you tape whatever shows you want on your settop box then watch them when you want . . . "On Demand" effectively.
Internet providers and businesses that want to increase internet usage will favor persuading folks to use "On Demand" as much as possible, and the software approach Dr. Morse describes in his video from that perspective makes sense because it will mean more money for those busineses to expand the bandwidth capabilities of the internet to meet this demand.
On the other hand, cable TV providers (which have some On Demand features, but still primarily just broadcast lots of shows to everyone all at once) such as Comcast, Cox, and the others I mentioned above, I predict, will continue to favor RF settops, as well as persuading the general populace to want RF settops, because doing so keeps their businesses much more successful, since cable TV, by its nature and use of the RF spectrum, is much more optimized with an RF settop box as opposed to being internet / software / On-Demand based.
Neither approach is right or wrong / good or evil, it is simply the nature of broadcasting and how people will get what they want to watch to their homes.
I think Dr. Morse makes his statement because he most likely sees Cisco going in a direction of internet support & expansion, and he is therefore trying to foster growth in that realm / market. Nevertheless, I respectfully disagree regarding RF settops going out-of-demand. I honestly believe that there are enough cable television providers with a large enough customer base who will continue to need RF settop boxes, and those companies (Comcast, Cox, etc.) will go to whomever they need to to get precisely these RF settop box products.
