With my first child slated for a September premiere, I’ve realized I probably won’t have time to watch as many new shows this fall. This is leading me to examine the whole process and question why I even bother. With the ability to download shows on demand, I am no longer content for the old network business model. I don’t want to pay DirecTV $100+ per month for hundreds of channels, most of which I never watch. I don’t even want an a la carte plan where I pick the channels. I want to pick shows.

I want every episode of every show available at full quality to download legally on the same night it airs for the first time. If I have subscribed to a show, I want to start watching it at the exact same time everyone else does, not the next day.

I want the ability to choose to pay more for commercial-free episodes. If there are commercials, I want to be able to fast forward through them. If the creator wants to make commercials mandatory, then I want a deeply discounted price to compensate for the inconvenience.

New shows could premiere for free each year and then gradually increase in price while building an audience.

All shows should be available anytime. We shouldn’t have to settle for a month of terrible “special” programming between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

People who don’t like sports shouldn’t have to deal with all their favorite shows being pre-empted a minimum of six times a year while all the major sports crown a champion. Why not make the new episodes available, and let people decide to watch them when they want?

The content creators need to wake up and deliver a new programming model. The only way for them to embrace a new model fully will be to stop protecting the old model. Although, everyone still needs buggy whips, right?