"Would you agree that the current piracy landscape makes it much more difficult to start a new fee-based distribution model vs. a free/ad-supported distribution model?"
Good question. Piracy status quo, without some sort of crackdown, already skews the "legitimate" distribution models to those that benefit companies with Google's model (e.g. for YouTube).
I'm pretty sure the internet itself favors an ad-supported distribution model. In a fee-based model, in order to make a profit, you have to limit viewing to those who pay. In an ad-based model, you make more money by getting as many people to view the content as possible. The Internet is very good at spreading content to a lot of people. It is not so good at limiting content to a select group of people.
Good question. Piracy status quo, without some sort of crackdown, already skews the "legitimate" distribution models to those that benefit companies with Google's model (e.g. for YouTube).