For a moment, it seemed like the streaming apps were the things that could save us from the hegemony of cable TV—a system where you had to pay for a ton of stuff you didn’t want to watch so you could see the handful of things you were actually interested in.
Archived version: https://archive.ph/K4EIh
It’s referring to cable packages. Oh you want to be able to watch FX shows? Then get the blue-tier package to add 30 random channels, 28 of which you don’t want for another $30 on top of the base price! Oh you want AMC too? Then get the green tier for another $45 as well that also has 35 channels you don’t want. Sorry, we don’t have a package with both FX and AMC, you’ll need to get the blue AND green packages on top of the $60 base subscription. Sorry, you can’t just choose what channels you want.
Circa 2011 it’d just be like Netflix and/or Hulu were all you need to get most of the content since they had deals with the different studios. Now they’re all segmenting off onto their own.