Entertainment

CUT THE CORD

Remember back in the olden days, when everyone had a land line?

Well, cable television looks to be going that way – if it hasn’t already. Is it nice to have around? Sure, in a quaint, retro sort of way. Is it a redundant waste of money? Kind of, yeah.

There are now so many other ways to watch movies and TV shows that it seems increasingly pointless to pay a cable provider. We’ve assembled some of the biggest reasons why you can now safely kiss that monthly bill goodbye.

The economy, stupid

“My tech-savvy friends definitely think cable is a waste of money,” says Benny Goldman, a reporter for computer and gadget site Gizmodo.com. “They rarely flip on the TV to do anything more than channel surf, and usually download or stream shows and movies right from their computers or video-game systems.”

On a field trip to Best Buy, we asked a computer salesman for his two cents. “My friends are frugal,” he said. “They all just have Internet.” Then he showed us the memory stick hanging on a chain around his neck – on which, he said, were the newest episodes of Cartoon Network’s “Clone Wars.”

OK, most of us aren’t wearing our favorite shows as jewelry just yet. But there’s no reason we can’t partake of the cheap or, often, totally free access to the same shows we’ve been shelling out big bucks for every month.

You’re not really using most of what you’re paying for

A recent Nielsen report said the average American home watches 16 of its 188 cable channels. That’s not smart money. Do you really need nine different cooking channels? Are you ever going to avail yourself of the all-line-dancing network? We didn’t think so.

Who watches shows when they’re actually on?

“I’m over the whole ‘scheduled broadcast’ thing,” says Genevieve Futrelle, VP of production at UGO Entertainment. “I just prefer having shows on DVD or online. I want everything on demand.”

As more and more viewers turn to Netflix, iTunes and Amazon to rent and purchase entire seasons of shows, it’s becoming irrelevant to watch something the night it’s on. As long as you’re able to tune out the next-day water cooler talk about “Lost” or “Gossip Girl,” you’re golden. (And earplugs are a lot cheaper than cable.)

Most of the major networks are streaming online. For free. ( Click here for a complete list of shows online)

Chances are whatever prime-time show you’re hooked on can now be found, in full-episode format, online (see sidebar). Individual shows are getting in on the act, too: Trey Parker and Matt Stone took the entire “South Park” library online recently with South Park Studios, where you can watch full shows or selected highlights. And NBC announced earlier this week that it’s interested in creating a separate “Saturday Night Live” site for video content.

The technology is there. Well, it’s getting there.

As more media companies realize their future is dependent upon online video, technology is becoming easier, cheaper and more diverse. The key word is integration, and any media company with an eye to the future is looking at ways to synch up Internet and TV. Netflix, for example, sells a box that streams video to your TV. And Xbox and PlayStation offer downloadable shows and movies in addition to gaming.

Mike Volpi, CEO of online video provider Joost.com, tells us he’s seen the future of video: “I was in Japan last week,” he says, “and I saw a lot of so-called intelligent TV sets, where the TV has Wi-Fi on it or you can plug an ethernet cable into it.”

So… are there downsides? Yes. A couple. We’re not going to lie to you.

Sports

“What I watch on TV are live sporting events,” Volpi says. “Pretty much anything else, whether it’s news or comedy or drama or even the debates, I watch online.”

Games appear to be the one big holdout; they’re not reliably streamed online, so if you ditch your cable, you may have to spend more time watching in bars. But really, didn’t you need to get out more anyway?

It’s still a bit of a pain in the butt.

When you don’t have cable to bundle things into one overpriced package, assembling your viewing lineup takes a bit of work. It’s getting easier all the time, but “this is still very early in the content game,” explains Scott Ferber, founder of online video site TidalTV. “It’s such a new thing, really – this is not going to happen in a day.”

Must-see TV

YouTube may be the old standby, but there’s a growing number of online video alternatives that offer more content with better quality – and far, far less of those annoying “fan videos.”

Start with these sites, and see if you can’t find everything you ever watched on cable. (But don’t rule out YouTube altogether; the site has just announced it’s partnering with CBS to offer full-length shows.)

OVGuide.com

Hulu.com

Megavideo.com

Joost.com

Fancast.com

Primetimerewind.tv

Beelinetv.com

Quicksilverscreen.com

Surfthechannel.com

Tidaltv.com

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