I Want My Zero TV

I love TV and watch a good amount of it.  I don’t, however, pay for cable television.  I live in what’s increasingly referred to as a “Zero TV” household - all the TV content I watch comes from Internet pipes.  And as long as I don’t want to watch live sports (deal-breaker for many people, I know) and can be content to sometimes wait until the next day after a show first airs to watch it, I’m pretty much able to watch whatever I want, whenever I want, mostly without commercials, in high definition (usually) and on my television using an Apple TV.  And on my laptop.  And on my mobile device(s).

From a few back of envelope calculations, it looks like I manage to save around $450 a year not paying for cable.  This comes from the assumption that a cable television package that contains all the shows I regularly watch costs around $70 per month ($840 per year) after taxes and whatever other extra charges come attached to the base monthly service fee.  

For around $350 - $450 each year, I get the following content:

• iTunes: Subscriptions to 9-12 seasons of TV shows (approx. $20 per season for $240 max)
• Netflix: All content on there for $8 per month ($96 per year)
• Hulu Plus: All content on there for $8 per month ($96 per year)
• Original Web-based content: Usually FREE!

This translates to me watching every episode of around 20 shows that I care about every year, mostly commercial-free and on demand, plus some amazing independently-created web content.  

Of course, there are times when I can’t figure out how to purchase content that I’d really like to buy.  To illustrate how I deal with this, refer to this The Oatmeal comic.  Everyone should click on that link - it’s a fantastic comic.  Ok - here’s another link.  Go ahead - click!

It seems to me that future big media networks aren’t necessarily going to start as broadcast or cable channels. They are going to start from  websites with strong user communities.  Funnyordie.com produces tons of amazing original content like Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns and Billy On The Street, the latter also being shown on the Fuse network. Reddit.com’s only got one original web series, but I have a feeling we’re going to see more of them.  Explain Like I’m Five takes the concept of the subreddit of the same name and makes videos out of it.  The gist is that adults explain complicated concepts (like Existentialism) to a classroom of 5-year-olds.  It’s awesome and informative and cute.  Just ask Gizmodo.

Other great producers of content include:

• Yahoo - Burning Love
• Cracked.com - After Hours
• The Onion - All of it

And then there are the more and more fantastic independent producers of video content coming out.  Just to name a few of my favorites:

• Red Letter Media - Reviews of Star Wars Movies (trust me - they are really good)
• High Maintenance
• My Drunk Kitchen
• Wainy Days

I didn’t include YouTube on here as a producer of content because it’s (at the moment) mostly a conduit for independent producers of content to showcase their content.  All of the above independent producers place their content on YouTube as well as the web sites I linked to above.  (Except High Maintenance - it is exclusively on Vimeo for some reason).