The slings and arrows of outrageous television

Cord-cutting can be confusing, but it’s the way of the future

Some years back, when cable was the be-all and end-all of television delivery, people complained about the cost, and the argument that was always raised was this: “I am paying for 100 channels, but really, I only watch five or six.”

People wanted some sort of a la carte cable service, where they could tell the cable company which channels they wanted and pay only for those channels.

Be careful what you wish for.

I was not one of the people who ever asked for a la carte service. Yes, I probably only watched five or six channels regularly, but I liked having a choice, on those weird occasions when I would stumble across some interesting new show in one of the nooks and crannies of the television universe. I also understood the economics of the thing — if I went from paying for 100 channels to paying for 5, someone would take a bath. That might be the cable company, and it might be the cable channels. If my five favorite channels weren’t among the five most popular, they might have trouble staying afloat.

Well, over the years, things changed. Some cable channels became more ambitious, while others became less ambitious, stuffing their schedules full of…