Until Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, and others get the strangle hold they have on the content distribution in the US forcefully removed, nothing good will every happen with consolidating all those boxes. I would just be happy to be able to pay for the channels I want or to buy HBO seperately and watch it on my ipad or laptop.
I think what is happening now is much like when the phone companies began to give up their stranglehold on the landline. That only happened however because they never saw the voice over internet coming. The cable companies know who their competition is and will battle to the death (literally).