When I moved out on my own I had to make quite a few budgeting decisions. I wasn’t making a ton of money so I had to decide on the things that I needed as oppose to the things I wanted. I wanted cable television; however it was the first thing to go on the things that I did not need. Surprisingly I have been able to manage just fine without cable TV because, to put it simply, there are TONS of media out there that with just an Internet connection and a laptop you don’t ever need to pay for cable TV ever again.
Video Podcast
Video Podcast are on-demand video that are syndicated through RSS. Some of these podcast have just as high production values as TV shows found on network television. Some of them are just a couple of bored people with a digital camera. Regardless a lot of them are entertaining to watch. If you have iTunes, you already have access to tons of video podcast through the iTunes store. The best thing about video podcast is they are entirely FREE.
Here are some of my favorites:
Diggnation 
Totally Rad Show
1up Show
Ask a Ninja
Ted.com
I love TED.com. TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is a conference that describes itself as a “group of remarkable people that gather to exchange ideas of incalculable value”. Remarkable, extraordinary people are invited to give an 18 minute talk about some of the most intelligent and inspiration subjects. To be invited to a TED talk takes years and an exclusive invitation. Thankfully they are recorded and made available to the public for free.
My favorite TED talks:
James Howard Kunstler: The tragedy of suburbia
Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness
Ron Eglash: African fractals, in buildings and braids
Streaming Episodes on NBC.com, CBS.com, ABC.com, Fox.com
Even without cable television the networks these days all have the majority of their TV shows all streaming online FOR FREE. All you need to do is point your handy dandy browser to the network with your favorite shows like NBC.com. ABC even has HD streaming. Heroes, The Office, Scrubs etc are all on there. The only drawback is they do have short commercials, but it is a small price to pay to have it streaming for free.
Xbox 360, Xbox Live and Connect360
Xbox Live Marketplace is an awesome place to get media content through digital distribution. Granted for a small price you can stream movies and television shows straight to your Xbox 360 from a growing library on Xbox Live Marketplace. But that is not what the best part is. If you couple your Xbox 360 with a piece of software called Connect360, you can stream all your wmv, H.264, mpeg-4 not only from your Mac hard disk but also your iTunes library. Oh yea did I also forget to mention it streams Divx and Xvid content *cough* torrents *cough* ? If you don’t want to shell out the money to pay for Connect360, you can play all your wmv, divx, H.264 etc content off a USB drive or CD!
Fansubs
Fansubs are Japanese Animes that fans record off Japanese television, sub them in English, and release them on the Internet. If you are familiar with BitTorrent then you are already half way there! Just point your browser to a site like AnimeSuki.com
Some of my favorite Anime fansubs:
Naruto
Devil May Cry
Japanese and Korean Dramas
This last one may be a bit sappy for some but I like to watch the occasional Japanese and Korean drama. I think over in Asia they got it right when it comes to TV. Their TV shows aren’t serial. They each have a plot and inevitable conclusion. Besides … the majority of the Korean and Japanese actresses are hot. Again if you know how to work BitTorrent you cant download the majority of them over at d-addicts.com.
My Favorites:
Good Luck!!
Long Vacation
Love Generation
Satorare
My Name is Kim Sam Soon
Fred
December 10th, 2007