Watching Television Online

Today we can do anything online. We can buy groceries, read the news, buy clothes, listen to music, and, more recently, we can watch television. I currently do not have cable, or any way to watch regular television. But even before I did not have access to a television, I started watching all my television shows online. Oftentimes I would be busy when a television program I wanted to watch was on TV, so I ended up watching the show online at a more convenient time.

However, even if you do have free time to watch a show when it airs on TV, a lot of websites post links to each new episode of the show at the same time the show is aired on TV. The benefit to watching the online then, is the fact that most websites do not have commercials interrupting the show. This means it takes less time to watch a show, and you can go on to do other things with your day.

Some of the websites I use the most to watch television are Yidio and Megastic. Yidio is an entertainment site that connects people to television shows, movies, and songs, although I use it only to watch TV. It provides multiple links to the most recent episodes, and most of these links are commercial-free. Megastic, on the other hand, shows only television shows, and it is not always quite up to date, but all the links are commercial-free.

Other websites that provide television are Hulu, and of course the television network sites, such as Fox, NBC, CBS, etc. Hulu is always quick to load, and there are no pauses in the show; however, it does interrupt the show occasionally for 15-30 second commercials. Although this is better than the five minute commercial breaks on television, it can be annoying after being spoiled by watching commercial-free TV on other websites. Network sites tend to have even more commercials, and the downside is they do not display that many episodes of a show at a time. And, sometimes they only feature clips of the show. Also, each network, obviously, only shows television shows that they have on their network. In other words, you can only watch The Simpsons on the Fox website and if you want to watch How I Met Your Mother, then you will have to go to the CBS website.

There are a lot of websites that are linked to larger entertainment websites. For example, Megavideo often has links on Yidio. While Megavideo tends to be high quality and quick to load, it only allows you to watch 72 minutes at a time. After that, you either have to wait 54 minutes to watch more TV, or you can pay to be a member and watch unlimited amounts of video. But, given the number of websites where you can watch TV, this doesn't seem worth it to me. Also, after about a week, most of Megavideo's links are invalid.

Netflix is another great website to watch both movies and television. Currently, Netflix offers 17,000 television shows and movies you can watch instantly. However, this often does not include the most recent shows, and you have to be a member to watch, although that can be as low as $6 a month so I think it's worth it.