The cable companies own the cable lines and the Internet service and the DVR (except for the few with TIVO). Cable companies have encrypted even the content of cables without the cable box. Nearly everything has to go through their big and small cable boxes.
Google TV is an attempt to take profits away from the cable companies. They won't stand still for this if the threat became significant. Like what happened to TIVO, the cable companies will simply come up with a similar solution to what Google TV is doing and build it into the cable box/DVRs that customers are already paying for. This will shut out Google period.
Cable companies learned long ago what Apple learned recently: they have to own the technology that runs their business to own their future.
Google will never own the future of the Cable companies. They have the legal monopoly.
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