Oh, I think they do get it. This will start happening soon with all the content providers. They saw how Apple monopolized the music business, and now they want to avoid the same fate with Netflix. This is basically a bunch of posturing in order to bend Netflix over a table during contract negotiations with the major networks and channels.

Having worked in Hollywood before, I would not be surprised whatsoever if the heads of all the networks got together one week in a boardroom, hashed out their Netflix bargaining strategy, and agreed on a tactical plan. Hell, the industry is so consolidated that the same two or three people basically run every network out there.

They might be annoying. They might not give a good goddamn what's best for the consumer. But they're not stupid. (Or at least not as stupid as the music industry execs were).

That said, I wish they'd invest more money, time, and effort into building or supporting Netflix competitors, rather than stifling the Netflix business model altogether. I could live with a world in which I had to pick between Netflix and a handful of others like it. But I would probably tear my hair out in a world with just a content-crippled Netflix and no viable substitutes.