The McBournie Minute: There’s a reason network TV is free

Television and I used to be really close friends–especially in the days when I wasn’t paying for it. However, cable prices have been skyrocketing over the years, making it one of the worst possible investments. With that in mind, I’ve tried to keep digital cable, and justify it to myself for a long time.

I’m starting to reconsider all this, because most of what I watch is available online or over the air waves, and I don’t even watch that much television anymore. Recently, I got a 40-inch HDTV, and might I say, it’s pretty sweet. But I don’t feel the need to pay extra to get HD channels. Why? Well, I’m often just listening to shows while I’m doing other things, so the quality doesn’t matter, just as long as I get sport in HD.

I get Netflix, so I’m catching up on a lot of my favorite shows, the few shows I do watch that are currently airing I typically watch online, and the networks all broadcast in HD for free, yes, free. So why do I keep paying for cable? It’s simple, the networks pretty much suck.

When it comes to the networks, I watch Scrubs, The Office and 24, and that’s about it. The rest of the programming I watch can be found on other stations, like History, Discovery, FX and of course, Lifetime. I watch shows on these channels because they actually try for something new, and generally they try hard enough to achieve it.

I know a lot of people have been talking about the LenO’Brien (TM) controversy recently, but I don’t think many people get what the problem really is: no one’s watching anymore. Conan O’Brien lost in ratings to David Letterman because O’Brien’s viewership did not follow as strongly in the new time slot, and Leno’s old viewers didn’t think a puking frog was a suitable replacement for Jay Walking. I never watched The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien until its final night, hoping for some nudity. I haven’t watched late night or later night shows in ages. I felt bad for O’Brien because he’s funnier than Leno, and got screwed by NBC, but I wasn’t watching either show anyway, so it affects me very little.

So, here I am, getting free channels I don’t watch, while paying a whole lot for the channels I do. Suddenly, I got it. I’m paying for the cable channels because they are more entertaining, because they don’t have sit-coms or procedural police dramas (save for USA, TBS and TNT) instead, they have shows with writers to craft their words, they have dramas that try explore new possibilities and they swear more, which is way cool.

So, dear networks, I would appreciate it if you would put out some shows I’m interested in. Better writing, better story telling, and hey, maybe a nip slip now and then. That’s all I want.