I like that prospect too, but many media companies have proven to be scummy enough with their malvertising and tracking that they're likely to add micropayments

I like that prospect too, but many media companies have proven to be scummy enough with their malvertising and tracking that they're likely to add micropayments and keep their spy/adware. A recent example is German television switching to a new digital terrestrial transmission format, whereupon the commercial (ad-ridden) channels now require a yearly subscription to watch, but have kept the ads. The enabling technology was the possibility to encrypt said channels in the new format, and they, of course, jumped on it, pocketing the extra money but keeping all their ads.