There's an interesting phenomenon around great television shows these days. While they don't have the numbers you see for a broadcast network, the critical acclaim, and I suspect the better profit margins, are coming from other places. Many of them start on the premium cable channels like HBO, or middle-tier networks and sometimes even on basic cable, and then there are battles ensuing about where you can watch them via the Internet. I love to see Netflix and Amazon engaging in these fights.
Even more interesting now is that Netflix and Amazon are committing to creating the programming themselves. I think that's what you call a game changer, for sure. The latest hotness came last week, when Netflix released 13 episodes of a new series called House of Cards, all at once. Kevin Spacey is the star, and people are really going apeshit over it. I wonder if the hype will last, given that they released an entire half-season at once, but it's still neat to see.
As someone who hasn't been able to justify paying for cable TV for the last year, and frankly not missing it, I do enjoy seeing the really good stuff come to light in ways that don't involve cable. I mean, Downton Abbey on PBS is fantastic. We've really taken advantage of Amazon Instant Video via the Prime subscription as well. It's not that I object paying for good content, I just object paying a lot for it and getting little from it, which was really the case with cable.
The only thing keeping me from moving away from cable is access to HBO GO. It's giving me the chance to catch up on all of their great shows that I missed out on for years while I didn't subscribe. If they'll ever offer it without a cable subscription, I would jump ship in a heartbeat.