Ask HN: Paying for content using micropayments at the ISP level?
Say your favorite provider strikes a deal with a dozen of good publications. You then have a choice to either keep your old 50$/month internet subscription or pay 60$/month for a 10$ micropayment credit, all payments handled by the ISP. So you can then browse the NYT, say, until your credit runs out or whatever terms are in effect. I'd pay for such service, it seems it would be much less of a hassle than handle 10 different subscriptions.
The major publications could still rely on advertisement revenue to serve the non-paying consumers, without having to throttle the connections.
Of course the devil is in the details, but does such a scheme even make sense?
Edit: Note that some ISPs are also cable providers and sort of already do this with cable TV. You pay a monthly fee to get access to certain channels.