The Afterlife Of A TV Episode: It's Complicated
Have you ever seen a rerun episode that made you want to watch more of a show — even a whole season? With so many TV channels and so many shows to keep up with, it's possible that some of them could completely pass you by.
But there are also many ways to watch a show, even if it's no longer on the air. Take the medical drama House, which ended its run on FOX in May.
To watch an episode today, you could go to Netflix, where you can pay $7.99 a month to stream videos. But it only has House DVDs. So you go to Hulu. It has a few episodes. If you pay for Hulu Plus — which costs the same as Netflix — you can watch the final season, the one where House goes to jail.
Finding Popular Shows
While many TV shows are available online, distribution deals often complicate where they can be seen:
Latest season?
Broadcast by
Online
Subscription
Restrictions
Breaking Bad
Yes
AMC ($), Netflix ($)
With cable subscription
Yes
None
Downton Abbey
Not until January 2013
PBS
PBS.org
No, first 2 seasons available online
3rd season is available, but only in the U.K.
House
In syndication
FOX
Final season is on iTunes and Amazon.
Yes
Earlier seasons are available, but cannot be streamed on Netflix.
30 Rock
Yes
NBC
Netflix ($), NBC.com
Depends
NBC.com and HULU stream 5 latest episodes (free). But if you miss them, you can pay Apple or Amazon per episode.