Jeff - cable companies are businesses. The goal of a business is not to do things for free, it is to make money.
If the FCC no longer requires them to provide analog service to homes, why should they? If they drop analog service, the FCC rules require the cable provider to offer set top boxes "either for free or at an affordable cost".
If you want free OTA, use an antenna.
Yes, it is probably only a matter of time before OTA goes away, but as of now there is no current legislation to end it. It will probably be more of a cost vs. demand issue. Although there has been a recent movement away from cable and satellite TV, it has not been a huge migration into OTA viewing. The big move is to streaming from the internet.
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/advisory-a...on-subscribers
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