Dan Frommer points out a post about the number of illegal downloads have surged since Fox has decided to pull their top rated shows from viewers online, unless they authenticate with a Dish Network account. I have had personal experience with this and it is annoying to move to a different website because the local TV station will not allow for streaming.
The logic of removing local TV shows from streaming doesn’t add up — many people have no cable connection at all but can purchase a digital signal modulator for ~$20 to get basic channels for free. Furthermore, many people have DVRs that allow customers to watch their content later. Why is it necessary to limit streaming by authentication? The ad revenue alone would seem to make the services enough money to cover whatever costs they are losing by having potential viewers watch online instead of on TV.
Forward-thinking cable providers need to consider that most new users do not have any idea what their Comcast/DishNetwork credentials are to access exclusive content. It ought to be the case that users who use their cable provider as their ISP can automatically get authenticated (via proxy) to the content that networks wish to keep behind a paywall.