re: Hulu w/ Live TV going up $10 a month

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The channel and content owners pull the strings, so competition among streaming providers does not follow the typical "law" of capitalism that increased competition benefits consumers. Instead, it just results in more bidders for the same content, which drives prices up.

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Content owners provide the content; the streaming services and the cable companies are middlemen; the viewers are the consumers.

Obviously the prices don’t keep going up without any limit; otherwise, the prices would be sky high.

The streaming services and the cable companies negotiate the lowest price they can from the content providers. They then deliver the content to the viewer at the max price they can get the viewer to pay. In exchange, they provide certain services. They create a user interface for the viewer with all their channels in a grid. They provide DVR capability. They provide technical support etc etc. When they provide bad service, the viewer cancels the service.

More competition among the middlemen benefits the consumer. It forces the middlemen to provide the best service for the cheapest price.

I agree though that eventually more and more content providers will provide their content directly to the viewer—thereby cutting out the middleman and saving the viewers more money. But right now, only a few of the content providers have the will to do this.