Thing 43 Online TV & Video

Our family has been without a reliable source of broadcast TV for over three years. We live in an area with poor reception and have chosen not to subscribe to satellite TV for various reasons. We have regularly viewed movies and old TV shows through the library and Netflix. Unfortunately, living in a rural area also limits our access to high speed Internet, and we have chosen not to subscribe to the available service for now, so watching free TV shows on-demand on the Internet is not something we will be doing at our house.

For this Thing, I found some short excerpts of recent TV programs. I think the potential impact to our current broadcast network TV stations is already being felt. Many news articles have been documenting the decline of viewers. I believe the Internet and computers are replacing television in most homes, either directly by allowing viewers to choose when they will view their favorite programs, or indirectly by people spending more free time using their computers than watching television. I believe eventually these devices will merge and become one device in most households.

While we do not watch TV on our computer, we have noticed that once we stopped viewing network TV and all of its advertising, our children stopped wanting so many "things." This is really noticeable when we go to Grandma's house, and they get to see the latest and greatest commercials. I wonder how long producers will continue to be able to create TV shows without the guaranteed revenue stream the current broadcast model provides. Will services like Hulu always be free? I don't think so.