I was preparing my future expenses, wondering how much I might be paying for cable, when I stopped myself: Why would I ever pay for cable if I pay for internet?
It’s best to watch as little television as possible anyway, but I’ve noticed that anything I do watch is readily available after a short click on my laptop, including live sports. Besides a monthly internet bill, the only other payment I would make is for my $15 monthly Netflix account, which immediately takes care of most of my viewing needs with the “watch instantly” feature.
For anything unavailable on Netflix, I check out the official site of each TV network for free internet programming, including NBC.com for the Thursday night comedy lineup (Office, 30Rock, Parks & Rec, Community) and SNL, Hulu or FOX.com for any other sitcom or drama, etc.
*Some networks might wait an hour or a day before making a new episode available online. I can wait.
The greatest perk for me is that with a few sites like USTREAM.com, AtdheNet.TV, & ESPN3.com I can watch all the live sports I need, including SportsCenter, absolutely free (except for the internet bill, of course). As long as this is the case, I won’t be paying for cable.
This is certainly something for advertisers to think about.
Super Bowl XLVI is just around the corner, and startups will be paying up huge money for 30 seconds of ad space. Perhaps a better strategy would be to save money, and instead of paying millions for ads on TV, pay much less for ads on one of these free internet sites.
In the meantime, VentureBeat just reported that Sony has made The Godfather available in its entirety on YouTube, and I doubt this is a one-time occurrence. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come for YouTube, but with all the other options, it’s not even necessary.