In an apparent contradiction, consumers want the ability to view content they have on their PCs on TV Screens, but not pay for it.
Now that part of the problem is being solved with devices being created that do just that, consumers are balking at paying more for a device empowering them to do it, according to a poll conducted by Forrester Research.
I've talked on bizofshowbiz before about whether people not only will want to pay for another device, but also whether they want something else sitting around their home adding to the growing technological clutter.
This gives the cable industry another thing to be concerned with. When they rejected tha a la carte programming desired by consumers, they opened 
themselves up to this becoming a major competitive force. When talking about why they didn't want to offer cable in that way, none of the answers were related to the consumers desires or wants, but how it would cause problems for the cable companies.
To show how the industry thinks, here's what Glenn Britt, CEO of Time Warner Cable (TWX) said: "Whether it's a good thing to do remains unknown. Just because we could do things doesn't means it's good for consumers, or that it's good for us. Why is that so wonderful? We have over the air systems that will cover digital."
Now you know why the industry is in so much trouble. People demand that they are able to consume media in the way they want and tap into whatever means of distribution they want to. It's called 'options,' Something gatekeepers don't like to think about.
Consumers are already thinking of their television sets as a computer screen. How they get the content they consume doesn't really matter to them, as long as they can get what they want.
A reason why the cable companies oppose this so much is that they're trying to differentiate themselves from Satellite TV by offering video on demand. Video-to-TV could disrupt that in a big way. No, it will disrupt it in a big way.
Some of the Satellite TV companies see an opportunity so are trying to forge deals with online video sites like MySpace (NWS) and YouTube (GOOG) to enable users to view clips directly on their TVs, without the need for any devices. Something consumers are very high on.
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