Consumers rate Cablevision

But as it turned out, the Dilberts weren't exactly visionaries when it came to entertainment. They're pretty good at stringing cable, though, and it has suddenly dawned on everyone that the future of the telecom companies may be remarkably similar to their past -- running the networks that others use to move content.

The Cablevisions and Time Warners of the world have realized the same thing, which is why they're now racing to bulk up through mergers that will give them a bigger "footprint" for their high-speed Internet services.

Comcast, in particular, deserves credit for recognizing that it may, in the end, be little more than a pipe, though a very big and fast one. Consumers, after all, could survive very nicely if cable TV's programming packages morphed into streaming video and over-the-air broadcasters followed suit, but everybody needs Internet service, and the faster it is the better.  

Back in the game

Consumers rate AT&T Uverse

Having awakened to the latest challenge of its long and somewhat sordid existence, AT&T is rushing to get back into or -- depending on your point of view -- stay in the game, today expanding its planned rollout of ultra-high-speed Internet service to as many as 100 cities and towns, including such major markets as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

AT&T says some locations will be seeing speeds as high as 1 gigabit per second by later this year. The upgrade is already underway in Austin, with Dallas and several North Carolina cities said to be next.

Then there's Google, which seems to be doing a lot of everything lately. It says it's studying "dozens" of cities that want a high-speed network like the one Google built in Kansas City, Kans. 

Streaming Video Age

You can thank Netflix and Amazon for a.) figuring out how to "do content" for the Streaming Video Age and b.) being big and mean enough to scare the daylights out of everybody else in the entertainment game. 

Then there's Aereo, the startling start-up that has been selling over-the-air television programming via the Internet for about $10 a month, making it easier for consumers to cut the cable without giving up sports broadcasts, local news and whatever else anybody still watches on traditional broadcast stations.

Aereo simply picks up the broadcast signals with tiny antennas -- one per subscriber -- and forwards them to the customer. What it doesn't do that cable does is pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the TV stations in licensing fees.

Showing your age

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week in a suit brought against Aereo by the broadcasters. TV networks and local stations are scared stiff, saying their basic business model is threatened.

If Aereo wins, the stations say they may shut off their transmitters and turn themselves into cable channels.

Nice threat, guys, but you're showing your age. How about doing something useful -- like transforming yourself into streaming video? You wouldn't get those fat cable fees anymore but don't I recall that you started out in the advertising business and did pretty well at it? The days of obese oligopolies eating from two troughs are drawing to a close.

Don't believe it? Ask your black car driver how he's doing against Uber these days.