DISQUS

"Why should consumers care how much it costs the Cable companies to produce shows--that's their (the cable companies) problem."

This statement highlights the misunderstanding that the general public has about cable companies. Most cable companies do not produce their own programming. They purchase channels from third party companies and rebroadcast it on their system. The same companies that the satellite companies are buying their programming from. There is not a seperate Discovery Channel for satellite and in many cases the programing that you are downloading for "a buck or two" on the internet is produced by the same third party companies. The reason they can afford to do this on the internet is because of the fees that they are already receiving from the cable and satellite companies.

Also, the cost of producing this programming is not irrelevant to the consumer. If a cable company is spending more in content than they receive from subscribers they will not stay in business. To which you might reply, good I don't like them anyway. But keep in mind, without cable companies helping to support the production companies that make the programming, you wouldn't have much to download. (except maybe some of the independent shows, which I admit are getting better. But that would be like only having PBS and Public Access to watch).

(...and don't say that there is content produced by broadcast channels that is supported by advertising and not the cable industry because Tivo and the like are slowly eating away at the advertising revenue that support those options. and the cable companies pay fees to them as well)