• Wired, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:45 AM

"Powerful forces are working against free, legal online TV," says Wired's Frank Rose, citing the recent decision by News Corp. to pull episodes of FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" for essentially becoming too popular on Hulu. Whereas every episodes of It's Always Sunny used to be available on the site, now users can only see the five most recent shows. Why, because "the availability of such shows on Hulu threatens two of the key financial underpinnings of cable TV: DVD sales and carriage fees, says Rose. Cable and satellite providers pay big money for the right to carry FX and other networks' programming, and making every show available for free online also cuts into lucrative DVD sales.

"If cable and satellite operators are threatened by your ability to watch free shows on your computer, imagine how they feel about letting you watch free shows on your TV," says Rose. Indeed, what happens if people decide they can live without expensive bundles of programming? As Peter Chernin, the outgoing president of News Corp., tells Rose, "You can't protect old business models artificially."

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