Naïveté aside, broadcasters aren't in the business of giving away their content. If they're willing to go to the mattresses to get more retransmission money from cable, it's logical that they will--as ABC, NBC and CBS did to Google TV last week--shut off access to non-paying over-the-top providers.
"Consumers must be made to realize that nothing is free anymore," BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield wrote in his blog.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), which hoped to profit from cable subscribers fleeing monthly fees for free TV was not pleased. "It is ultimately the content owner's choice to restrict users from accessing their content on the platform," the search engine/TV provider wannabe said in a statement.
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