I can't even remember the last time I was available to watch "Community" or "Glee" on the night it actually aired.
I, like many of you I'm sure, rely heavily on Internet services to facilitate my television addiction.
The premiere web site for legal streaming video of television programming is undoubtedly Hulu.com, which, after only two and a half years online only one of those years as a public venture has already become a household name.
The site offers select programming from NBC, FOX, ABC and some cable networks, and also hosts an impressive library of feature-length films. For any fan of TV, a visit to Hulu is likely a weekly staple.
The ultimate joy of the site, however, lies in the price of this service: free.
To make a profit, the site's owners occasionally slip pesky commercials that you can't fast-forward past into video streams.
But this minor annoyance can be easily overlooked.
After all, suffering through commercials in order to bask in the warm glow of free entertainment has long been routine in the age of broadcast TV.
Although Hulu seemed to be capitalizing on a winning strategy, the glorious days of free, legal online TV may soon become a thing of the past.
According to an announcement last week by an executive at News Corp. which owns the site along with NBC Universal, Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners Hulu may start charging a subscription fee as early as 2010.
This is a travesty.
Television has always been a free medium, and that's the joy of it.
Cable, satellite and other premium services are a different story, but broadcast television is supposed to be free of charge. This is why our shows are interrupted by commercials so that advertisers can pay for our TV habit.
Hulu's owners might be able to make the case for charging money for cable programming or for movies, but I will never willingly pay money to watch "The Office," or to catch a funny skit from "Saturday Night Live."
Luckily, web users are resourceful people, and will likely soon find an alternate venue to legally download shows for free if Hulu changes its ways.
Hopefully, Hulu will recognize that its audience will be quick to abandon the site if it implements a new subscription model.
Without support from viewers like you, it's unlikely that any such model could stay afloat for very long.
