• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 8, 2011

This is a call to end the boxes -- all the boxes in front of our beautiful television screens.

The trend is already there with Internet-connect TVs, but you know how stuff can linger. Perhaps consumers don't currently mind DVR boxes and other set-top-box equipment from cable, satellite or telco companies. They're our adult toys, after all.

Soon will come a time when that extra $6.99 DVR monthly charge won't be needed, and won't look so good against other new digital stuff. Instead, we'll pay a similar $7.99 Hulu Plus charge or perhaps around that on Netflix (as soon as it figures out how to garner more streaming video content -- and perhaps quell some irate customers who still want DVDs).

But it's not just the DVR box. Advertisers have long considered the set-top box a jewel box of sorts -- packed with valuable information on consumers. That too should take a hike. Future TV sets and other digital video screens will probably just need a small storage card that can slip into the back of TV screens and still contain some of that stuff.

Privacy issues? What we can't see won't hurt us.

There are already rumblings in the traditional TV world as cable operators feel the pushback -- however small -- that consumers are itching to break out of their monthly cable bill habit. But it is a TV equipment habit as well.

Cable operators can sense consumers making quick economic decision in their brains about their longtime cable charges versus the new monthly charges from a Netflix or Hulu -- and perhaps Amazon, Apple,and Google to come.

Of course, having or owning a DVR seems nice. You probably still have the season one finale of "Glee" on your machine. Or, perhaps some key episodes of "The Killing" or "True Blood" sitting there -- something you can't bring yourself to part with.

I know, it's tough. But we are in seriously tenuous economic and environmental times. Think of all that stuff to scroll through to get what you really need. TThere is already too much good stuff on television. Like going through your closet, you need to part with TV programs that are just lying around collective digital hard-drive dust.

Don't be a TV program hoarder -- or, for that matter, a TV equipment hoarder!