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Then don't pay it.

Fortunately, I don't need to, since my new HD-DirecTivo will record the over-the-air digital stations now.

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So what part is it that should be free?

Tough question to answer in the current day, with the revenue streams established the way they are right now.

Ideally, what should have happened, is in the early days of cable television, people would have refused to pay cable TV subscriptions just to get channels with commercials. Then the revenue stream would have settled out into a model where cable TV subscriptions paid for the shows (I know, not workable unless catv bills were huge or the shows sucked), either that or advertisers subsidized the cable companies, letting them distribute for free (probably more workable).

I remember that another "Killer App" for cable TV in the early days was MTV. I remember in high school asking a friend with cable/MTV if it had commercials. He said something like "Yes, but not many, and they're cool commercials, too." I think it's that kind of thing that gets the foot in the door, you get used to paying a subscription to watch a few high-quality commercials, and before you know it you're paying to be shown more ads than show.
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Tony Fabris