I’d been complaining about how the networks weren’t getting with the times for a while. But then… It started with ABC. They made episodes of Desperate Housewives available online. I think they were charging $1.99 on iTunes. Even when I missed the show, I wasn’t going to pay to see a show that I could tape (or get someone to tape) for free. (My VCR is jacked up.) Then I found out that ABC had selected shows available online at its website. The only catch is that you had to watch a few ads. No problem. Now for the most part every ABC show that I watch (Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, and sometimes Men in Trees) is online. This is perfect. I don’t have to be home at a particular time. Heck I don’t have to be home. I had a problem getting (or being) home to watch 24. Then I found out that I could watch that online. Great. Recently I was watching the CW network and found out that their shows are also available online. Now I can catch Girlfriends and Everybody Hates Chris which I have consistently missed. I completely missed last season because of 24. I would normally catch up when 24 was in hiatus but they took it off because of the switch from the WB to CW. Now I don’t have to miss episodes although I wish I could see those missed episodes of Half and Half. Now I’m catching up on Heros on NBC completely online because between watching 24 and Girlfriends I hadn’t been able to keep up. The quality of the video isn’t that bad on ABC, FOX, and NBC. As a matter of fact, if I hook my laptop up to the TV you can’t tell the difference. The CW, the other hand, was a bit choppy and they make you download an executable. Despite this, I really hope that this catches on and the networks realize that this is a viable delivery option. They should modify their rating system to include internet viewers so perhaps they can stop taking decent shows off the air. It would also be great if they made episodes of shows taken off the air available as well. With the ads they should be able to make a decent profit off of it. Also, this is an excellent cheap option for those of us that don’t do expensive entertainment (i.e. cable, satellite, DVRs) – I do have broadband though. The only problem is that my WiFi does weird things when one of my neighbors use a microwave.

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