said by amungus :

"they're likely going to continue focusing on bypassing carriers and offering content directly via their websites, undermining the very plan designed to save them."

Good. Tons of people do actually like the ability to just go to "network_name_here.com" and watch shows...

It's easy enough for most people to simply watch the streams there.

And about being a 'dumb pipe' - um, that's the whole reason people went to broadband... Because AOL and the like are just pointless. People want to connect to the internet, and be free to go where they want.

It's just a cable channel. One 6Mhz slice of spectrum on a wire. Nothing more, at least until channel bonding comes along. Making a bigger deal out of it usually ends up making things worse for everyone. One ought to be able to choose what they'd like to receive over that channel - hence, the internet was born... If they try to turn it into a prison system, eventually it will overflow and the system will collapse under the strain.