Rumors are flying high today about an iTune's $30 / month "TV Subscription" service. It would give users "all you can eat" downloads of current (and some past?) episodes of TV shows - playable your computer, iPhone, iPod, or even up on your TV. No need to pay Comcast anymore, right?

Sounds great for users, but it does force the TV networks and cable channels into an uncomfortable and unwanted political mess. The content providers remain quite reliant on fees paid to them by the cable / satellite companies; it represents a large percentage of their overall revenue, in fact. Further, iTunes downloads would potentially erode their primary revenue stream: broadcast advertising. Why would NBC, Fox, CBS, etc risk any of that?

While Apple would love to disrupt the TV industry as thoroughly as it did the music industry, by disintermediating the MSO's (cable co's), I just don't think it will be that easy. In the case of TV, unlike music, the content providers hold the cards and they have little interest in pissing off their existing distribution partners. That's ESPECIALLY true if the MSO's go on an expected content binge (a la Comcast gobbling up NBC). Story:

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091102/apples-itunes-pitch-tv-for-30-a-month/#content-main