technology: a series of tubes.

It seems that everybody is watching TV on the internet. It is being sold as a convenient way to watch anything at any time. This is of course a lie, it's actually a fantastic way for broadcasters to mitigate PVRs and cut costs.
I record practically everything I watch, much of it in HD. Broadcasters hate this because HD is expensive to produce, edit and then distribute. Secondly, they hate that I can fast forward all the adverts. Broadcasters aren't making these shows as a charity, they are getting money from advertisers which has been dwindling because TV advertising is less effective than ever.

But enter the internet, this provides a cheap way to send sub-standard resolution video to you and it also prevents you fast forwarding the adverts. You try skipping the adverts on 4oD, you can't. So the broadcasters can prove how many people are watching their adverts and therefore charge more to the advertisers, and because the quality of streamed video is often far below broadcast they save a fortune.

So next time you think that the broadcasters are doing you a favour by letting you stream their shows, just remember that you are doing exactly what they want you to do.