I have not subscribed to cable for at least 20 years and have no plans for the next 20, given I live that long.

IMHO cable has always been exorbitant for the “service” it provides. My experience (and later second hand experience) with cable companies revealed that they have a core business philosophy based upon a cult of arrogance and surly evasion (when you could could actually reach a real person) To be fair, AT&T and many other communications companies have adopted a similar customer service model.

That said — competition is EVERYTHING! Cable companies and perhaps even broadcast will fast become a dinosaur or shape up. Personally, I think cable deserves extinction and hope broadcast is eternal. Nevertheless I am convinced that on demand is the wave of the future. Heck, I am the perfect subscriber, I am an on demand kind of guy.

With regard to video I do just fine with broadcast. I have to admit that I would enjoy some pay TV content, particularly those channels that produce historical and science programming. Nevertheless, I can get all the printed history and science my heart desires with a mouse click on a “high speed” Internet connection. Video streams typically suck at my end but there is more printed material nearly instantly available to me because of the Internet than I could read in a dozen lifetimes. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend a dozen lifetimes watching the majority of content available on cable TV or even satellite.