Live Internet Television

Last week, Streaming Media profiled two very different people who have made the leap from traditional to online-only TV. Below, I have excerpted bits from the much more detailed profiles. Leave your own story in the comments!

Kimberly

When she attended West Point, frequent TV-watching wasn’t an option, so Kimberly Maxwell never became television-obsessed.  [Now] Kimberly watches the few programs she enjoys on her  laptop screen, which suits her fine for solo viewing.

“The only weird thing about not having a television is entertaining people. You come over to someone’s apartment and it’s kind of a failsafe to just turn on the TV and they can watch TV and you can go about whatever you need to do. But I don’t really have that option so there’s a lot more going out, a lot less sitting around.”

Hulu is Kimberly’s site of choice, and she rarely strays from it when choosing shows.  She stresses that anyone relying on internet video needs to be flexible: there are many shows you just won’t find. Economics were a factor, but only a slight one, in her decision to go with streaming video. She doubts she would watch enough to justify the cost of cable.

Mostly, however, she simply finds that online TV fits her life better.

Luis

As a husband and father of two, Luis had a tougher road in giving up traditional TV: He had to sell his family on the idea.

Economics played more of a role in Luis’s decision. He’s a professional musician, and when bookings slowed down during the current recession, he and his wife looked for expenses they could cut. The $60/month TV bill seemed a good place to start. They had to move from DSL to broadband to have a connection fast enough for streaming, but they’re still saving $35 per month overall. Plus, the faster connection makes it easier to do other things online.

With a Macintosh computer already connected to his living room’s 50-inch HD plasma flat screen, Luis was a natural for Boxee. He’s been using it since February and loves the selection and convenience.

The one thing he misses is full CNN shows.

“On Boxee, they do have a CNN channel which is more excerpts, I think—a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” he says. “There are no full programs on there. That was one that we miss the most: we’d watch AC360 and The Larry King Show, mostly. I haven’t watched those since we moved over to online.”

His family also enjoys a Netflix account with unlimited streaming, and since that works with Boxee they can easily download movies whenever they like. The Netflix interface is a winner, he says, as even his less tech-savvy wife can select a movie with ease.

The move to online programming has worked out so well for Luis, that he doesn’t see himself returning to cable when his business improves.