I've been ruminating for the last few weeks about the possibility of canceling my cable television subscription. Anyone familiar with my viewing habits will instantly recognize this as a significant moment, but this is hardly an attempt to ditch television altogether. While this decision would definitely curb my ability to channel surf or catch a movie on HBO by chance, my intent is to miss as little of my current "planned" television watching as possible. That is, I want to find alternatives to watching my favorite shows on live TV (or more accurately recorded from live TV via TiVo).

The alternative many people will immediately suggest is DVD. I know Josh routinely waits until a show is available on DVD, then puts in his Netflix queue. Sadly, I'm not quite there yet. I need the immediacy of watching a show within a few days of its original broadcast. This may be an unnecessary conceit, but I have to take baby steps, folks.

The way I see it, there are three options readily available to me: Amazon Unbox, the iTunes Music Store, and free episode streaming on the internet. For financial reasons, free streaming is the best option. After all, it would kinda defeat the purpose of this little quest if my Amazon and iTunes purchases added up to more than my cable bill. And yes, I know I can get just about any show for free via Bittorrent, but I'm keeping things legal here.

Here's a list of all the shows I watch along with their best availability from a non-cable alternative:

30 Rock
Free streaming (NBC.com)

Battlestar Galactica
Free streaming (SCI FI Rewind)

Bones
Free streaming (Fox.com)

CSI
Free streaming (CBS.com)

Family Guy
Free streaming (Fox.com)

House
Free streaming (Fox.com)

How I Met Your Mother
Free streaming (CBS.com)

Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Amazon Unbox ($1.99/episode)

Lost
Free streaming (ABC.com)

The Office
Free streaming (NBC.com)

Saturday Night Live
Some free streaming (selected skits on NBC.com)
Amazon Unbox ($1.99/episode)

Scrubs
Free streaming (NBC.com)

South Park
Free streaming (SouthParkStudios.com)

Top Chef
NONE

So "Top Chef" and "Saturday Night Live" would be the big sacrifices here. I can probably get by with the clips that SNL posts online, but I would miss "Top Chef" tremendously. Would I miss it enough to singlehandedly justify a monthly cable bill of over $50? Absolutely not. Besides, I can certainly plan one trip to the gym per week based on when I can catch "Top Chef" on the elliptical.

This analysis, of course, fails to take into account special broadcasts, like sports and award shows. Honestly, though, I rarely watch sports anymore and I just don't see spending hundreds of dollars each year just to watch an overly long Oscar broadcast.

So, this pretty much seals the deal that I'll be ditching my cable within the next couple of weeks. The only question is how much my internet bill will increase once it goes a la carte instead of being bundled with my digital cable.

Who knows? Maybe DSL will be cheaper.

UPDATE (2:50pm): Since publishing this post, I discovered that SNL is available for purchase from Amazon Unbox for $1.99, so those selected clips on NBC.com aren't the only option.