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A report from Reuters that Netflix is in talks with an unnamed cable company has us worried since Netflix turning into cable is the last thing we want. The information comes from unnamed sources and only mentions a quiet discussion of adding the streaming service to cable. But, if it all pans out, Netflix will become "available as another on-demand option for cable subscribers through their set-top boxes ... as an additional option added onto a subscriber's cable bill," sources told Reuters' Yinka Adegoke and Lisa Richwine. Translation: The streaming service "of the future" would join forces with the established companies we'd hope it would help us get away from.
This setup would get in the way of that cord cutting we oh-so-badly want to do. Adding Netflix to cable would defeat the whole purpose of the service. We accept Netflix's somewhat shoddy library because not having to pay for cable makes up for it. For $7.99 per month subscribers get reliable streaming with lots of options. Even with the loss of Starz Play, there's plenty on Netflix that can satiate a former channel surfer. A Comcast Xfinity double play Internet-Cable package costs ten times as much, at $79.99, offering lots of expensive channels (ESPN) some of us don't want (ESPN). We want to get away from those shackles -- and we're not the only ones. Last quarter, both Time Warner and Comcast lost cable subscribers. And, then there are all those Cable Nevers AdAge warned about a few months ago: A new generation of Internet-only watchers.