I am a baseball fan. Way back, the World Series was a free TV, as were the league championships series. At some point, probably in the 80s, the LCSs were cable only while the World Series was still on network TV. I finally got a cable around 1990. I could now watch the LCS and the Series. At some point (but I was no longer paying attention since I had a cable) the Series also went cable only. After my Expos departed, I kind of adopted the Blue Jays since that was the team that cable network carried. Suddenly the network opened a new, extra fee, service that is now carrying most of the Jays games, although they are showing one or two each week, at least for the being, on their regular channels. I don’t know if this new channel is pay by the month or pay for view, since my cable provider has chosen not to carry it at all (I gather there is some knock-down drag-out corporate battle going on behind the scenes). I rather expect that this new channel will be the only one carrying the LCS and Series games, if not this year, then within a year or so.
So is this how TV is going to go. There is nothing to stop all viewing from being pay for view if they decide this is how to make more money. Maybe in five or ten years only the dregs (and infomercials) will be free.
What do you Dopers think is happening? Has anything like happened in the US?