It is a fantasy shared by many Americans: dropping cable television and its fat monthly bills and turning instead to the wide-open frontier of Internet video.

Some are finding that the reality is not that simple.

These are confusing times in the living room. The proliferation of Internet video has led to much talk of "cord-cutting" - a term that has come to mean canceling traditional pay TV and replacing it with programming from a grab bag of online sources.

So far Americans are not doing this in any meaningful numbers. "Nor is there any evidence of it emerging in the near future," said Bruce Leichtman, the president of Leichtman Research Group, which studies consumer media habits.

Pay TV still lures them in

This is all the more remarkable, industry analysts say, because it seems to defy the way the Internet has disrupted and challenged virtually every other major form of media - from music to newspapers to books.

That's in part because the television business took action to avoid the same fate. Heavyweight distributors and producers have protected their business models by ensuring that some must-see shows and live sporting events cannot legally be seen online.

Technology companies are pushing alternatives like Web-connected set-top boxes. But these are still not as easy as signing up for cable or satellite service, particularly for those who want to watch on a big flat-screen TV and not a computer.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/08/23/1638463/hooked-on-cable-most-in-us-still.html