• The Washington Post, Monday, May 18, 2009 9:45 AM

Having to pay a monthly bill for "only" a few hundred channels of TV is likely to be a quaint memory for the viewers of the future. Many people, especially those under 30, are living that future now. These people watch their favorite TV shows whenever they want -- on their PC or streamed from the PC to their television set - and don't pay a monthly cable bill.

Such viewers are at the vanguard of a potent economic and social force that could do to the broadcasting, cable and satellite TV industries what free online news has done to newspapers. Everything about the creation, production and delivery of TV could be altered. Already, full-length episodes of more than 90% of broadcast shows are legally accessible within a day of being broadcast, per Forrester. About 20% of what's on cable is similarly available.

"We are starting to see the beginnings of cord-cutting, where people, typically young people, are saying, 'All I need is broadband,' " says Glenn Britt, CEO of Time Warner's cable division. One such viewer says he has never watched his favorite shows on "actual television." Instead, he downloads episodes from iTunes and watches earlier seasons on DVDs. "Once you can get shows on demand, you really can't go back to watching TV the old way," he says. And what about paying $50 per month for cable? "That's just absurd," he says.

Read the whole story at The Washington Post »