This is an interesting and inevitable evolution of the web.
I've always maintained that it would be far easier for the media and content owners to move to the web as the means of distributing content than it would be for the web to sustain quality content. Note I said sustain.
As tradition means of content distribution fade away and all content is distributed via the network (including the web), what content we access will change - where the how is to be the same for all - namely the public and private networks.
Ultimately what will happen is that access to content will be paid and not any differently than one accesses sat, or cable or sat radio. Content owners and media houses will have their lineups and while there will always be free content, just as there has been free content available for decades through the air, one will pay for access to premium content.
The web will change dramatically and everything will become augmented - most especially vision. Everything we look at, and touch will be augmented first by "about" information and later in several simultaneous contexts. A building for example, will be viewed in its context as a property, price per sq foot, volume, history, etc...
Media content and news, while syndicated over the web, will be paid content as only one of many channels in a particular lineup. While the web so far has augmented traditional forms of delivery, the direction and therefore augmentation will change.
What this signals is the first significant step in that direction and it cannot happen soon enough. If the supposition persists that all things should be "free" then nothing has any exchangeable value. Without that value and exchange, there is little incentive, or struggle - both of which are desperately needed by man if he is to remain healthy. I like this and welcome it and hope it evolves quickly. People pay for things because they are worth something and to have one tiny, loud segment continue to demand all things for nothing, is going to come to an end.
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