TV on the Internet

There's all this fuss about NBC failing to renew their contract with Apple, and Apple then summarily yanking NBC shows from iTunes in a fit of pique, claiming NBC wanted to raise the price up to $4.99 per episode (which does sound awful). But then NBC's shows all show up at Amazon's Unbox for the same old $1.99 per episode they were on iTunes, and it turns out that Apple really wants to make the price for every TV show it sells 99 cents, the same as a song.

Which, when you think about it, is really not that much compared to what I pay for cable, especially if you really only watch a few premium shows. You can get all the networks for free, so all I have to pay for is the Daily Show and whatever's on HBO. I think that would come under $80, wouldn't you?

Once this Apple TV thing gets going, it really might replace the cable paradigm in my mind -- instead of being able to view 700 channels, 685 of which you have zero interest in, you can instead download any episode of any show that has ever come out on DVD right then and there. Plus rent movies, as Apple seems to be leaning towards and Amazon is already doing.

Pretty much all the broadcast networks are streaming their shows on their websites already, with ads you almost have to watch, and NBC is already planning this whole Hulu thing ("Why is Hulu the new venture's name? According to a note posted on the site by newly installed CEO Jason Kilar, it's meant to connote fun and simplicity. "Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce and rhymes with itself," he wrote." As lots of other people have pointed out, all words rhyme with themselves, dumbass.) Reaction has been mixed (it means "butt"!) but whatever, it's hard to come up with a name.

Anyway, I can't wait to get rid of cable, is my point here. I'd pay $20 to get a whole season downloaded onto my computer at once if you made it easy for me to get and easy to get it on my TV, and I would fucking relish calling up my satanic cable providers and telling them to go fuck themselves. You know what I mean?