| Jay520 said: They will probably replace cable boxes as well, when all cable channels are available via stream. |
This would most definitely almost eliminate what's deemed "illegal cable", plus I can see "on demand" being pushed massively by consumers. The amount of BitTorrent piracy for TV shows I'd say proves it.
Cable companies in Australia aren't pushing for this for 2 reasons:
1. We have one dominant provider here, a monopoly if you will, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Moving the country over to streaming media would open the doors to competition, as well as allow sports venues to host their own channels and streaming services. This is why Murdoch heavily pushed for the Abbott opposition to become government, in order to sabotage the greatest threat to Murdoch's monopoly here: the National Broadband Network.
2. Since it's a monopoly, Murdoch's company (Foxtel) forces channels on to consumers that they don't want (for instance, if you want the Comedy Channel, you need to buy about 20 other channels in the same package, the majority being absolute garbage). On-demand streaming will render 95% of these bullshit channels as financially unsustainable...
It's funny how corporate interests change if there's a monopoly involved. Usually it involves supression of new technologies.
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