by Dreamer Writer

Created on: July 27, 2008

With the evolution of broadband Internet and the increased video capability of personal home computers, television networks have realized the potential for publishing their shows on the Internet for their fans to watch after the original viewing date on typical television. Many of the popular cable broadcasting companies are publishing full length episodes on their websites for people to stream and download as early as the day after the program originally aired.

Some of the better know channels available online at this point in time are CNN, IBN, HGTV, ABC, NBC, Al Jazeera, ESPN, NASA, WWE TV, and Cartoon Network. The channels are ordered by content so it is fairly easy to navigate to find what you want. Most of the content viewable is live and streaming as it happens. On the other hand, some of the channels (especially sporting events) are often archived and available for people to watch over and again at a later time. Furthermore, there are even some not so popular channels that are updated at daily or hourly intervals. These are a lot like your satellite radio stations. Content runs over and over like a tape replaying itself throughout the day.

There are some adult channels that are accessible through these Internet TV sites. Much like any other Internet based media for adults, there is ample warning and plenty of time to change the channel if this was not the content you intended to see on your computer.

Putting TV on the Internet: Is it wrong?

Since the beginning of selling of movies on VHS tape, piracy of these movies was born. When the video cassette movie was first released, the cost of purchasing these movies was about $60 while the cost to rent them was about $5 per day! The first VHS movies I bought was a pirated copy of Wrestlemania 3. The picture quality was not too great and the sound had a lot of rumbles in it, but it served its purpose for the time being.
As time moved on and VHS gave way to DVDs, pirating had moved up with their coping as well. Now with the use of DVD burners on desktop computers, anyone could duplicate rented DVDs, music CDs, and disc based video games from their home. In recent years the media companies have started to fight the pirates that are broadcasting their copyrighted material all over the Internet. A few battles have been attempted but very little headway was actually made for these companies.

Now advancement has happened again in the media networks. Now that the ability to broadcast video content on the Internet is easily accessible, does anyone think that this will lead to the pirating of television as well as the movies of the past? As easy as it is to hook up the cable to the computer and then upload that recorded copyrighted material to the Internet for the financial gain of the pirate, perhaps we are just making this easier every day?

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