I don't know what the situation is like in the US, but in Canada: the typical cost of basic cable service plus a couple of cable packages in 1990 cost roughly t

I don't know what the situation is like in the US, but in Canada: the typical cost of basic cable service plus a couple of cable packages in 1990 cost roughly the same as basic internet service plus a streaming service today. It is difficult to even claim that this comparison is even remotely fair for a variety of reasons. - The only major loss with the current system is local programming. You may be able to get it with free OTA channels, but people subscribed to basic cable in the 1980's and 1990's simply because cable was more reliable than a good residential antenna tower so it is justifiable to count this as a loss. - The current system is much better in that you can watch commercial free programs when you please, any given streaming service is usually less expensive than any given cable bundle, and the content in any given streaming service will usually have more in common than the channels in any given cable bundle. (Cable companies were notorious for putting similar channels in different packages.) As an added bonus: the "watch when you please" aspect means that you can defer viewing, may that be to switch between streaming services to keep monthly costs down or to simply cancel during the months when you have better things to do than watch television. - The current system is also better in that Internet service can replace many other products and services. Subscribing to newspapers is a novelty these days. If it wasn't for societal expectations, people would have dropped phone service since the Internet provides far better communications options than traditional landlines.