Whereas I'd love to get rid of my UK VirginMedia cable box (it crashes often, is slow and I just resent it a lot of the time) but won't - the on-demand movies are cheaper than iTunes and have a comparable selection (not great but reasonably up to date).

But the killer it also has iPlayer and its equivalents from the other four major channels built in. The only competitor to that, functionality-wise, would be to plug a real computer into the TV.

So in this case, cable does offer some real value - enough for me not to cancel my subscription.