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You're completely right. People thought paying money would stop ads from permeating cable TV originally [1], and look what happened there.

History is repeating itself and yet you still have people in this very thread carting out the tired old bromide: "the market will take care of it, vote with your wallet". Well, it clearly won't in this case.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-inv...

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I think its too early to say if history is repeating, certainly a possibility. Things have changed a lot since 1981, consumers have a wider range of choice for entertainment, and swapping providers is super easy now.

One negative change though is Public Broadcasting Services are being encouraged to be self funding, which may reduce the options for free and ad-free content!

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