Out Of Touch.

The impressions of Cable execs seem awful ego-centric. I spose the best way to run a company may be to continue the status quo instead of implementing massive changes to give people what they want. (As long as no one else does it behind your back.)

I'm willing to listen to an argument that there are only three types of Internet media industry: portals (Google, Yahoo, etc.), content providers (Time Warner, Disney, etc.) and distributors (telcos, cable cos, etc.) But I'm not really sure that lines can be drawn quite that rigidly any more; Google offers more services every day. So while this suit might not know it, Google isn't just a path any more, they're the destination. Add the rumors of metro-wifi in various areas and you'll start to see that they're bridging the gap to replace the "providers" and the "distributors." So the next lofty assertion that portals going to die out seems like a bit of a leap.

The second paragraph really hammers it home: "The fact is, right now, most people look to their broadband provider as nothing more than a pipe... People generally don't like their cable company or their phone company." Damn straight, I'm paying you for access to Google, not for an email address and a homepage filled with ads. I'm headed for steak and I don't want any in-flight meal that you might try to package and sever up on my way there. I don't want to be on your network, it just so happens that I need to go through it to get where I'm going.

Techdirt: Cable Guy Says Portals Are Toast