TV is. Music generally is. Why are games so special?
TV and Music is a non-responsive, non-interactive recording.
It's not like it is a physics issue, just cheap-ass network operators not laying lines from this CENTURY, hell, technically even last, some seriously still use aluminium.
From a physics perspective the age and material of the lines are irrelevant. Signals travel at nearly the same speed. The latency is due to the physical limitations of the hardware and routing infrastructure. This is mitigated by placing the server closer to the client, which obviously costs the game provider much more.
Or just ads at loading screens, again, as long as it was instant (which it would be since it is based their servers)?
Actually, loading screens would be one thing that cloud computing might make economical to seriously reduce.