Free Glee!

[Commentary] Cablevision's hanging tough against Fox was a first shot in the next media battle: the unraveling of TV, the separation of programs from channels.

Old TV channels have become an unnecessary layer of curation. It's the shows we want, not the networks. Networks are and always have been meaningless brands. They provided services: distribution, promotion, monetization. But as in the rest of media -- as with news publishers, book publishers, radio stations, book stores -- those functions can now be taken away from the middlemen and done more efficiently elsewhere. The problem for Cablevision is that the unraveling has to start at home. It can't unbundle Glee and the World Series from Fox until it unbundles its huge packages of utterly unwanted channels that cable companies force us to pay for though we never watch them. Physician, heal theyself. Of course, this unbundling will be painful for cable companies. They gather huge revenue selling those bundles to trapped customers who have no choice but to pay for Fuse if they want Food. It won't be an easy transition. But once choice arrives, we will demand our freedom from bundles.

Of course, the Federal Communications Commission could screw this up. It is about to try by asking for more authority to intervene in the retransmission negotiations like those Cablevision and Fox just went through. The problem with that -- as with so much else the FCC and FTC and meddling in -- is that they would act to support the incubments and prevent disruption, against our own interests, propping up old pricing structures and old models of entertainment and keeping disruptive newcomers out. No, FCC, no!