I approveI've been expecting (and often hoping) that home media-access can be reduced to a single data-link subscription (be that cable, fiber or whatever) managed as a public utility. Then the various services (internet, voice, broadcast TV, on-demand TV, movies, etc.) would be nothing more than services running over that.
We're pretty close to that today with companies like Netflix providing on-demand TV/movie service and companies like Vonage and Skype providing voice/video telecommunication. The missing link is services to let you stream live TV directly from the networks (or from a TV provider you choose from among several) instead of going through a cable company with a mandatory monopoly.
The tech's all there. It's just business and politics now. Which is, of course, the most difficult challenge.
We're pretty close to that today with companies like Netflix providing on-demand TV/movie service and companies like Vonage and Skype providing voice/video telecommunication. The missing link is services to let you stream live TV directly from the networks (or from a TV provider you choose from among several) instead of going through a cable company with a mandatory monopoly.
The tech's all there. It's just business and politics now. Which is, of course, the most difficult challenge.