Cable cutting is becoming one of the newest technology trends.  In today’s world many people feel that that can see anything they would have watched on cable on the internet.  Broadband internet has made it incredibly easy for people to stream video content.  Gone are the days where it would take 5-10 minutes to download a single mp3 file.  With today’s speeds I can download an HD movie in an hour or less.

Many broadcasters are starting to put their content online for people to watch for free.  The trade-off is that you will have to watch a few commercials.  For example both Fox and ABC put a lot of their shows on their web-sites for viewers to check out.

But, if the broadcasters web-sites aren’t your speed Hulu will probably have you covered.  Hulu has many cable and broadcast television shows available to watch.  Even better, if you sign up for Hulu Plus you can watch entire back catalogs of some shows.  I did a marathon run of Community using a Hulu Plus subscription.

Of course, Hulu isn’t the only streaming site out there.  Both Amazon and Netflix stream new and old TV shows and movies as well.  Amazon has included access to part of their movie/TV library with an Amazon Prime membership.  Users can also buy or rent any other programs they would want to watch.  Netflix charges a flat fee for users to stream as much content as they want.  This includes both movies and television shows.  Between Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix you can watch just about anything that has aired on TV.  I forgot to mention, if you are locked into the Apple ecosystem you can purchase or rent entertainment via iTunes as well.

Really, the only thing you get via cable that you can’t get on the internet is sports.  There are apps out there like Watch ESPN that allow for streaming sports but the service requires a cable subscription.  Its great if you are on the road and want to watch some football, but its no help for a cable cutter.

But here’s the trade-off, you might not be able to stream sports but the streaming sites are beginning to have original content of their own.  This content is not available on cable or broadcast TV.  For example, it was big news when Netflix announced they were purchasing a new season of the hit comedy Arrested Development.  Instead of airing a new episode each week Netflix is putting all of the episodes online at once.  That means a viewer can do a marathon run or spread out their enjoyment of the resurrected series.  Netflix has also purchased a series called House of Lies which will be exclusive to the streaming service.  This series stars Kevin Spacey in the lead role.  Its quite a coup for Netflix to have landed this Kevin Spacey show that was sought after by channels such as Showtime and HBO.

Netflix isn’t the only one to be streaming original content.  Last week it was announced that Amazon has obtained the rights for a Zombieland series.  The 30 minute Zombieland episodes will be available via Amazon’s streaming video service.

We are living in a world where you don’t have to have a cable or satellite subscription to experience the majority of entertainment being put out for your television.  Really, if you don’t want to watch sports then cord cutting might be a viable option for you.  Of course I say that from living in the US.  I’ve been told my some friends living in Canada that there is a very different selection of content available on Netflix.  I know for a fact that many of the broadcast channels set up their web-sites so that only people with US IP addresses will be able to stream their content.  If you’re a savvy internet user I’m sure you can find ways around that though.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’m giving serious thought to being a cable cutter.