I just hate the idea of having my bandwidth chewed up and particiapting in one of those p2p conspiracies.  Yes - I understand that it’s a people’s distribution network, but it is illegal afterall.

Now I’m not here to debate DRM policy, copyright fair use or the next big video codec or CDN - but I have been trying to find my favorite TV shows on-line - legally.  I remember noticing when ABC announced that they’d make their primetime programming available through download and I’ve been getting into a few of the new shows - so I thought I’d take an informal survey of what’s out there right now.

CBS - this is where I can find ALL the episodes of Jericho. hat rocks.  Lots of other stuff too.

NBC - at first glance, seems like they have a pretty nice UI and way of slicing up episodes into parts. But wait!  Where are the back episodes?  I missed the opening episodes of Heroes - where can I see them?  They’re not on NBC.com.  What’s up wit dat? 

NBC also tantalizes us with offers of downloads - but after you’ve installed their onerous spyware - all you get is eh same stuff you can get streaming.

I wonder if Quincy Smith, the new head of NBC digital will change all this?

ABC - is by far the leading proponent of full VOD on-demand mainstream TV programming.  Not only do they sell all their suff via iTunes, but hey’re also giving us free versions - just as long as we sit through the TV commercials (which seems pretty fair to me.)

FOX - is he biggest disappointment.  They don’t have any shows on-demand at all!  Oh well!

COMCAST - we have COMCAST cable out here in Walnut Creek, and we’ve been enjoying the VOD on-demand capabilities that went live this fall.  We can now safely NOT record shows like Dexter, the Wire or the Sopranos - cause we know they’ll show up on On-Demand.  What’s fristrating is NOT finding the shows we want to see - like Heroes, the Unit,

Anyway - the world is getting to be a better place and once Home Media Centers, Meedio or otehr platforms become teh norm - and we have consoles like the XBox360 and PS3, I think we can look forward to a world which integrates mainstream content, DLAs, our living room, mobile devices - and hey - maybe even our cars.

So in conclusion - I sure wish NBC would show us ALL the episodes of Heroes - and what’s going on with Fox?  I thought they cut a revenue sharing deal with all their affiliates?  Why not share some of that ‘content wealth?’  Oh yah - all their shows suck right now, so it doesn’t matter!

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