@rasterweb Those companies imitated past media, which were also subsidized, first by massive investment capital (earned by monopolies in other industries), and later by advertising.The mass market hates to pay directly for communication (or other infrastructure). They prefer to pay through inflation in prices of material goods. An invisible, private tax. Almost a kind of laundering—the advertising tax is blended with the "real" costs. Just like the profit tax, come to think of it.
