Don't underestimate the power of bundling. Even if content becomes decoupled from the cable companies, bundling is still a powerful way for content companies to

Don't underestimate the power of bundling. Even if content becomes decoupled from the cable companies, bundling is still a powerful way for content companies to get a small amount of revenue for content they know you don't care much about. The way it works is this: consider customer A, who isn't subscribed to any TV service. Customer B is subscribed to HBO only. Which customer is likely to pay more for a subscription to a different channel, say AMC? The content provider wants to charge less to the customer who already has HBO, since they know that customer gets less marginal value for an additional channel and is willing to pay less. The best way to figure out which customers already have HBO is to bundle the services. This is also why dreams of splitting the 100-channel packages into separate deals for a dollar a channel are so misguided. If you're trying to buy a single channel, the content provider knows you really want that channel, so they'll charge you $40 for it. If you already have 99 channels and you're buying channel 100, they know you don't want it at all and might charge an amortized $0.05.