Readers want Internet TV — but cheap!

Several readers brought up an issue that I’ve only started to hear recently: all of a sudden, too much on the Internet is starting to cost money.  But I’m not surprised: I used to predict that we’d look back on the Nineties as the Golden Age of the Internet—not because everything was so good, but because everything was so free.

Kim, CT: I like the idea of TV coming to the Internet, but I don't like the idea that everything on the Web is going to cost money. Some of us already pay a high price for the use of the Internet, and yet now they are asking people to pay for watching programs that normally would have been on TV free to record. I just think this is all too much.  It seems like everywhere we go on the Internet someone wants money for something, making what we already pay for the Internet double.  When is enough enough?

Rogers: And then there were plenty of readers — both young and old — who are more than ready for television on the Web. 

Alex Puhl, Goleta, CA: I think this is a great idea! I’m an 18 year old male and I just don't watch TV anymore. There’s just too much pointless junk that we don't have control over — except for changing the channel.

Rebecca, Bellflower, CA: I wish television WOULD go to the Web. I am tired of paying for 100 stations that I don't care about and will NEVER watch, and have to pay extra for channels that I do want. I do NOT speak Spanish or Korean, I do NOT watch sports, I do NOT need TEN news channels, and I am beyond VH1 and MTV. I am tired of having things shoved down my throat and forced to pay for them.

Rogers: Rebecca may get her wish much sooner than she thinks; Congress and the FCC are seriously considering changing the cable television rules so that you can buy individual channels “ala carte.”  It is, however, a change the cable channels oppose, arguing that under those rules many smaller channels will no longer be able to survive.  The fact that the influential Christian broadcasters are against this move may be enough to stop it in the current administration.

And then finally, whenever I write about television, I receive a full complement of emails like this:

D.L. Paulshus, Pasadena, CA: Who cares whether TV moves to the Net? Whether broadcast or Netcast, there's still practically NOTHING WORTH WATCHING. We're down to only 4 hours of actual TV viewing per WEEK because the networks — including the so-called premium movie channels HBO and Showtime — have a nasty habit of cancelling their most interesting shows. We quit watching, guys. Find yourselves some other suckers.

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