Shawn made some compelling points today that Major League Baseball is an excellent example of a new media entertainment company. Its TV product (like all sports) is Tivo-Proof (most people won’t DVR a game), so there’s no skipping of commercials. When and if cable dies at the hands of Internet TV, MLB’s has the market power to sell/stream it directly to consumers over the Internet. And of course its live events are piracy proof cash generators.

Of course MLB still has a long way to go before they become a truly digital-friendly company. But its interesting to think that one of the oldest media companies may have one of the most future-proof business model.

Right on the heels of pulling the plug on their TV.com syndication deal, Hulu apparently just requested that their content be removed from Boxee. From the Boxee blog:

two weeks ago Hulu called and told us their content partners were asking them to remove Hulu from boxee. we tried (many times) to plead the case for keeping Hulu on boxee, but on Friday of this week, in good faith, we will be removing it. you can see their blog post about the issues they are facing.

our goal has always been to drive users to legal sources of content that are publicly available on the Internet. we have many content partners who are generating revenue from boxee users and we will work with Hulu and their partners to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

we will tell them how users love Hulu on boxee, why it represents a great opportunity for them to better engage with fans of their shows, how boxee can help in exposing their content to new people, and why they should be excited about future opportunities of working with us.

While it seemed like (we all hoped!) the studios were wising up to the inevitability of IP distribution, it isn’t entirely surprising that they cut Boxee off. Internet based TV on your computer can be rationalized as just another marketing channel. Internet based TV on the TV, on the other hand, means the end of the local affiliate stations and cable companies as we know them (both of which contribute significant earnings to, or directly own many of the studios producing TV content).

While this move isn’t likely to kill Boxee in the short term, the question is will other major networks now pull their content from Boxee as well (ABC, NBC…)?

As much as the existing TV distribution system would like to delay it, the day of free, IP based based TV on the TV, is coming. The irony of the situation is that innovators like Boxee are ones that will ultimately save the studios. Even if it means saving them from themselves.

In the technology world, deflation is a given. We get exponentially more computer power, bandwidth, and storage for less money every year. The same thing happens across the economy, and it’s an equally positive force for consumers and businesses alike. Yet the government’s actions lately are 100% directed at spending and printing money. I’ve wanted to write about this for a while, but Michael Shedlock at Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis beat me to it:

The idea of a deflationary trap is in and of itself complete nonsense. Deflation is actually a natural state of affairs. As productivity increases, standard of living rises and prices fall. Absent government intervention, productivity would actually increase the amount of goods produced, causing prices to drop. Falling prices are a good thing not a bad one.

Fed and government policies rob taxpayers by promoting policies of inflation. Look at what accompanies rising prices: rising property taxes, rising sales taxes, and rising income taxes. Is that a good thing. The answer is no, especially when wages fail to keep up, which is exactly what happened.

Who benefits from inflation? The answer is government, banks, and already wealthy because they are first in line to receive money. Everyone else is screwed. Inflation is theft from the middle and lower classes for the benefit of government and the wealthy.

Over time, the government and the Fed so distort the economic picture, that a mentality sets depicted in the often heard phrase for a few years’ back “Better get that house now, before it’s too late”.

The problem is not falling prices, the problem was the excess of debt that led to massive speculation and ever escalating prices. Krugman continues to put the cart before the horse in this regard. Indeed, Krugman Is Still Wrong After All These Years.

It is impossible for government to spend one’s way to prosperity. Proof can be found in the failed practices of Russian and Chinese central planners over the years, and more recently the failed policies of Japan.

This is not only a clear and demonstrable reason to avoid “stimulus spending,” but it also goes a long way towards explaining the rising inequalities between the upper class and everyone else. From food and clothes to medical care, the gap between what the rich and poor have access to has exponentially declined in recent years. The same forces should have created similar equality of income and net worth as well. Unfortunately, low-interest rate inflationary policy has ensured the opposite.

Thank goodness we now have an inflationary stimulus package to support the middle and lower classes though.