Web-based video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and others have one important thing in common – they aren’t associated with cable companies. Many people (myself included) have decided to cancel cable service in favor of internet video consumption and over-the-air broadcasts. As subscribers for cable services decrease, cable companies are trying to figure out a way to make up for all that lost revenue. One solution may be to charge customers based on how much internet bandwidth they use in a billing cycle.

That sound you hear may be the death knell for the set-top box/dust magnet in your home entertainment center. Sony and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association have announced an agreement that will place the cable companies’ technologies inside future Sony TV models. This will allow consumers to dial up ALL their cable channels, access video-on-demand and use interactive services without having to find a place for a steaming-hot cable box near the TV.

The nation’s largest cable companies – Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House – are on board, and the pressure is now on Samsung, LG and other big-screen makers to follow Sony’s lead. The NCTA says they’re welcome to do so.

It’s the future as seen in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” but it’s happening in the here and now: advertisers and retailers tracking your every move. In the Tom Cruise blockbuster, that tracking was done via optical recognition whenever his character walked into a Gap or walked by certain ads; in the case of the cable more »