Buy Potatoes, Not Vons

Imagine how unfair it would be if you had to subscribe to your supermarket. Instead of going in to buy milk or potatoes, you'd have to pay a monthly fee allowing you to take whatever groceries you want. It would probably be very expensive, and you'd be paying for a lot of things you'll never eat.

It's sort of that way with cable and satellite services. You pay a monthly fee, often pretty high, and you get hundreds of channels, even if you only watch five of them. But that model is changing with recent announcements from HBO and CBS that they are offering streaming services for their networks. The Los Angeles Times reports.

Questions...

•Are cable and satellite companies now on the road to extinction? Why or why not?

•How is this yet another example of disintermediation?

•Will an a la carte system lead to more TV channels or fewer? Why?

•Do you prefer the subscription system we have now, or do you prefer a la carte? Why?

•How many TV stations would you watch if you had to pay for each of them?