The cable industry admittedly also included sports and some other live content--some of which is on various streaming services. And some other content is only available a la carte. But I agree with your basic point.
A hypothetical all non-live available digital content for one monthly price would probably be over $200/month.
The good news for someone like myself is that I can get tons of content (and access to more a la carte) for under $50/month. I could add a live streaming service and I'd still be paying less than my cable TV bill used to be.
There are definitely some efficiencies... and inefficiencies of the new model. Used to get 200 channels for $100, and now I can get like 6-8 streaming services for that. But since it's a la carte I can pick which ones I use, including spinning down to only one or two.
The sports surcharge model I'm especially glad to get rid of. During the pandemic, the Chicago Cubs decided to launch Marquee Sports Network, and require every carrier in the Chicago area to subscribe all customers to it for roughly $7 a month... or not be able to carry it at all. The ridiculousness of it is like if you were forced to buy HBO by your Internet provider.
IMHO, the city of Chicago should've kicked the Cubs out of the city over it, but sports teams have too much power over municipalities.
(Note that the carriers are presumably contractually required to deny you are being forcibly subscribed, but every carrier's sports fees uniformly went up approximately $7 a month when Marquee launched.)
A hypothetical all non-live available digital content for one monthly price would probably be over $200/month.
The good news for someone like myself is that I can get tons of content (and access to more a la carte) for under $50/month. I could add a live streaming service and I'd still be paying less than my cable TV bill used to be.