Are you interested in accessing old options through an increasingly irrelevant medium? Netflix's newest attempt to win the streaming service wars will offer content in a conventional way: starting this Monday, over 500,000 subscribers will have automatic access to a Netflix TV channel. So do we just call them "Flix" now, or what?

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With the exception of premium channels like HBO, people don't say the word "fuck" on television. It's either bleeped out or replaced with another word. But why? Many people assume it's because of FCC regulation, but the FCC only controls over-the-air broadcasts. Shows on cable can say whatever they want. So what fucking gives?

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This morning, Comcast announced its bid to buy competing company Time Warner Cable for a whopping $45.2 billion, thus creating one giant cable mechaprovider that will hopefully grant us humble peons better service in its infinite wisdom and goodness. See? We like this change, Comcast! Look at how much we're praising you! Please don't turn our Internet off.

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And here's their acceptance speech, "I'd like to thank the cable companies for keeping a strangle hold on paid channels, the internet, and especially HBO for letting us show so much crazy sh*t." 

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Gather round, dear readers, for story time. Your tale today is about the hamlet of Fairfield, Connecticut. A quiet town where crime is low (not a single murder since 2008) and crops are bountiful (well, no crops, but with an average household income of just under $100k most people can afford to buy the food they need), its citizens nevertheless found their peaceful lives rocked yesterday when they were hit by a calamity of epic proportions. What could they do? Who could they turn to? How would they survive? Or, in plainer terms: There was a cable outage an hour before Breaking Bad was set to air, and a ton of people called 911 to complain about it. Let's break out the "I'm judging you" gifs, because this is messed up.

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If you thought mannequins watching you while you shop was a creepy thought, what about your DVR watching you on the couch? This is the future Verizon has in store for targeted marketing. 

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There's something almost reasonable about the idea that the large cable companies, like Verizon and Time Warner, are looking to get a slice of console gaming pie. After all, those rigs need a television, right? Seems only natural for cable to try to expand into the market. Unfortunately, the technology required to stream games to a television, bypassing a console, just isn't there to support them yet, especially with Gaikai and OnLive being either owned in whole by Sony or requiring a box of its own. In short, it's going to be a long time before this ever happens in any meaningful way.

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Edging closer to a future where all of our digital services are wrapped up into one complete package, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been in talks with various cable companies working to get Netflix's video streaming offering as part of, and through, their cable services. This would make Netflix an alternative or addition to a cable company's on-demand options, certainly a boon to both customers who prefer to have their bills wrapped up in one tidy location, and cable companies that can't compete with the staggering amount of media Netflix has to offer.

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Yesterday's first-quarter earnings report from Netflix showed strong growth and revenue: The video rental-by-mail and (increasingly) streaming video company's subscriber base is 70% larger than it was at this time last year, and it achieved revenues of $719 million. While the company's earnings per share were somewhat lower than some investors had expected, leading some to dump the stock in late trading, it's worth pointing out one fact that underscores just how much has changed in a few short years and how disruptive Netflix has been to that end: With 23.6 million subscribers in the United States and Canada, Netflix has more subscribers than the largest cable TV service in the US: Comcast has 22.8 million subscribers. On the earnings call, Netflix reaffirmed its commitment to produce more original content like the Kevin Spacey-starring series House of Cards, to appear exclusively on Netflix beginning in late 2012. (via CNN Money)

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If you're a fan of web-based TV service Hulu, you're not alone. The company reported revenue of over $260 million in 2010, more than twice its $108 million haul in 2009 -- and it managed to turn its first profit. But Hulu doesn't have room to breathe easy yet: At $2.16 billion, its rival Netflix had nearly ten times Hulu's revenue in 2010, and perhaps more pressingly, Hulu could lose or see restricted some popular free content from Fox and ABC, whose parent companies, News Corp. and Disney, are reportedly "mulling whether to wait two weeks or more after a TV episode airs before making it available free online," and, to add insult to injury, may ramp up their sales to Hulu's Internet-delivered TV competitors Netflix, Microsoft, and Apple. Which could explain why Hulu refuses to rest on its laurels: According to the Wall Street Journal, Hulu execs are considering a radical switch in the company's direction, which would see Hulu as a sort of "online cable provider."

In what would be a major shift in direction, Hulu management has discussed recasting Hulu as an online cable operator that would use the Web to send live TV channels and video-on-demand content to subscribers, say people familiar with the talks. The new service, which is still under discussion, would mimic the bundles of channels now sold by cable and satellite operators, the people said. Hulu's managers say tumult is natural in such a fast-changing industry. "When we blaze trails, which is what Hulu is about, it takes time," said Jason Kilar, Hulu's chief executive, in an interview. "That is not for the faint of heart, and we understand that."

The question remains, though, how many people would pay for such a service, and, relatedly, how much juice would the networks that own the shows be willing to give it. I've previously expressed my opinion that Netflix Instant is simply a much better value than Hulu Plus; a solid live offering could seriously distinguish Hulu from its competitors, particularly among a younger generation that doesn't want to pay for cable if it doesn't have to. What would a cable-like Hulu need to have to be worth it? (WSJ via Engadget)

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Recently, a number of cable companies have been dropping hints about offering cellphone / wireless Internet service. So far they’ve just been baby steps, with a small test rollout here, or a limited test deployment there. But thus far, none of the CableCos really have much to show for all their talk.

But the cable companies need to think bigger, much bigger: If they do, both you and they will end up winners. Here's why:

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