I got a big chuckle out of this article from CNN, about consumers canceling cable service and turning to the Internet for TV.

The analyst/pundit comments reminded me of the Internet naysayers from the mid 90s:

The brutal economy may motivate some consumers, like the Wynsmas, to switch to Web-based TV, but it won’t necessarily hurt the cable or satellite TV business, which has historically been recession-proof.

Yes, but this is the first time in history that consumers have a viable alternative to satellite and cable TV.  And, the alternative happens to be entirely on-demand.

And:

“The cable companies have invested billions of dollars to expand the footprint and reach of their services, and it will require a similar investment by the [Internet Protocol Television] players to catch up,” said Lewis, the technology consultant.

Not really:  cable companies spent billions building infrastructure, both for broadband/IP and for proprietary cable distribution.  Since IP is open access (in theory), the IP TV player don’t need to duplicate that investment — they can just ride on the back of it.