Get Free TV Online with Joost, iTunes & More

When it comes to marketing, the internet is the new king. It used to be television, and before that print advertising, but those mediums are moving online, with companies like Google and Apple leading the way. However, this post isn't about marketing, per se, as much as it is about how one of those mediums, television, is making the transition.


For as long as I can remember, which isn't really that long, I've gotten my TV through a cable jack on the wall. It's either gone straight into the back of my TV, or gone to a box which then went to my TV, but either way, it's come from a cable company. Recently, however, I've been getting more and more of my TV from the other part of the cable; the cable internet.

Internet TV has been growing for a while, with sites like YouTube giving it a big boost, but sites like YouTube have been more for user created content rather than content you watch on TV, and thus have never taken the place of cable TV. But that's changing, and in a big way.

Advertisers are realizing that TV commercials are quickly loosing value, due in large part to TiVo and other DVRs that allow you to skip through them, so they are turning to other mediums. One medium is the internet, and the way they're pushing advertising on the internet is through what I like to call "The Google Model" (plan to see the first "Techarrhea" post on Google), which is, in a nutshell, free content. If you give away your TV shows, people who download and watch them won't mind watching a few commercials right? That's what Google says, and Google is right.

Recently, 3 of the big networks (ABC, NBC, and FOX) have announced that episodes they are promoting for this upcoming season will be free to download (on AOL Video, Amazon Unbox, and iTunes, respectively). Now, they're only the pilots right now, but I imagine that if they can get enough advertisers on board, it could become feasible for these shows to always be free. But TV companies are a ways away from accepting that, so don't expect it. Until then, use Joost.

Joost is basically internet TV on demand. It has a bunch of content, all streaming and real high quality, and it's totally free. I really recommend this app if you have high speed internet. I use it quite a bit. You need an invite to be able to join, and I just so happen to have some, so if you want to join, let me know and I'll get you set up.

In my opinion, the future of TV is both in your living room and on your computer, and free (The Google Model). The Apple TV is a step in that direction, but until TV companies get that, we may be stuck paying for our TV like we're used to, and that's a shame.