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We've been hearing it for a few years now. With the proliferation of Web video and the continued improvement of its quality, the cable business is totally screwed. Many of the most popular shows are streamed on Hulu or the network's website the next day and if you never get around to checking out a buzzed-about series, it's okay. The entire thing will be on Netflix before you know it. There's a small but growing contingent of cord-cutters, as well as a new generation of those who just won't ever subscribe to cable in the first place.

They may not like to publicly admit it, but cable company executives realize that this looming threat is real, even if it's not overwhelming just yet. That's why they've taken a series of defensive measures to ensure they they don't get left in the dust. Lately, it's the iPad and tablets in general that are serving as big cable's next battleground for the attention of consumers.

If you happened to see the movie Star Trek VI (the last one with the original TV cast) when it premiered in theaters in 1991, perhaps there may have been a moment (or a dozen) when something occurred to you: You didn't have to dislike or even fail to appreciate these actors on-screen to realize, yep, there's a reason why this is - and should be - their last performance in this venue.

As part of its bid to acquire the assets of T-Mobile, AT&T made the case earlier this year that consolidation through mergers were the only way for nationwide carriers to inexpensively (the euphemism here being "horizontally") piece together a 4G network.

Today, Verizon Wireless demonstrated that is clearly not the case, in a deal which enables it to manage the block of spectrum that was the subject of the best-placed bid in the big FCC 700 MHz auction of 2008, even though VZW was already the clear winner of that auction already.

After Comcast was caught throttling Bit Torrent traffic on its networks in 2007, the company caught quite a lot of heat and voluntarily stopped doing so. The practice, which was then ruled by the FCC to be illegal, struck at the heart of the ongoing and contentious issue of net neutrality.

True to its word, Comcast has indeed backed off from throttling Bit Torrent traffic, as new data from Measurement Lab demonstrates. Three years ago, the company interfered with about half of all Bit Torrent traffic on its networks. Today, that number is down to 3%.

As more TV viewers watch their favorite shows online, the number of U.S. households without a cable subscription is expected to rise dramatically between now and 2016, according to a new report from Magnaglobal, a media forecasting firm.

By 2016, the number of households that do not subscribe to a traditional pay TV service will triple from what it is today. All told, 9 million households won't have cable, Magnaglobal predicts. Of those, about 4 million are what we'd call cord cutters; people who once subscribed to cable but canceled it in favor of accessing television content via the Internet using a set top box or computer hooked up to their TV sets.

If you thought cable companies were in a panic about the threat the Internet poses to their business model, think again. Rather than sit idly by as Web content makes its way to television screens via set top boxes and smart TVs, companies like Comcast will instead try to position their traditional offerings alongside that streaming content. How? By adding it to set-top boxes.

Specifically, Comcast and Verizon are talking with Microsoft about the possibility of including cable subscriptions via the Xbox 360, according to a report from Digiday. The tech giant's gaming console, which already streams content from sources like Netflix, Hulu Plus and others, could in effect become a cable box if Microsoft manages to strike a deal ahead of its upcoming release of Xbox TV.

Comcast is making its push against over-the-top content distributors like Netflix and Hulu. Today, it took another step towards evening the playing field by enlisting Elemental Technologies, a video processing company that specializes in sending content to tablets and smartphones.

Comcast is one of the first cable companies to meaningfully compete in the content market, instead of being a "dumb pipe" operator. Comcast's desire to be in the content business became apparent with its massive take over of NBC Universal approved last year. In terms of content monetization against the other operators like Verizon, AT&T or Time Warner, Comcast is now ahead of the curve.

The video and voice calling service Skype is coming to a TV near you, thanks to a new partnership with Comcast, a leading provider of cable TV services here in the U.S. This morning, the two companies formally announced a deal that will allow Comcast customers to use Skype's HD video calling on their HD television sets, made available through a Comcast-provided adapter box which works in conjunction with an HD video camera.

Customer trials of the new service will begin in "the coming months," but no exact date was given for the service's wider launch, only that more details will be made available "later this year."

Comcast is looking to try to beat the online video sites at their own game. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cable provider is testing how to deliver live television over Internet protocol to better enable itself to do battle with the likes of iTunes, Hulu, Amazon and Netflix in a trial run at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall.

When giants walk, all others be wary. Comcast's goal is to bring live television to any device that can access the Internet. Its test will be available to MIT students who will be able to watch video on any device this fall. Is this what consumers have been waiting for? Who better to do it than a cable company with a giant infrastructure and content distribution broadcast rights?

The media world is changing fast. The latest anecdotal evidence of that: TV star Keith Olbermann left his post at MSNBC this weekend with zero explanation, yet he hasn't lost his access to the public's ear. Olbermann just Tweeted to his 200,000 fans on Twitter.

Specifically, he Tweeted that he's going to Tweet. At 8 PM EST tonight. Presumably about why he left his show so abruptly. Was it because of the Comcast/NBC merger the day before? Was it not that at all, but rather longer-running tensions between the star and management? We'll be able to hear it directly from the horse's mouth in just over 5 hours. In 140 character chunks.