it's time the content providers got out of the maintenance and provision business and let someone who isn't concerned with making megabucks on their return. If a company or companies provided cable like the electric company, as a given, with one pipe, and without advertisement as to how great they are, it would leave room for the content providers to do what they do best, provide content, and figure out how to pay for it.
As consumers our money is best spent for infrastructure, not on creating lock ins with vested interests. Perhaps the federal government will catch on, since it's in their best interest as well. (but it seems like it will take some time, if ever.) Content providers freed from businesses that they don't really want, would make billions and billions of dollars by providing directly to the consumer, comcast becomes a server farm, nbc creates content and uses the best hosting deal they can get, whether or not it's comcast, and consumers could finally have enough bandwidth to watch on demand, with the profits going directly to the content providers. Without sweetheart deals to middlemen, the price of content would drop, and people would be more willing to pay for it. Net neutrality, enforced bandwidth requirements, and approaching the internet like a utility would create jobs, allow the cream to rise to the top, and create competition which would again be good for the consumer. Digital TV's a joke, the airwaves are useless, and "free" content is dead. The federal government has dropped the ball, and seems unwilling to make any regulation that would straighten out the situation. We could blame it on the shaky economy or we could blame it on lobbyists and payoffs, your choice.
