Until the early 1990s, media had always relied primarily upon print and analog broadcast. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcast are the known method for people to consume information and entertainment. These medium are easily controllable.

These days, I find myself not needing any of those.

I rarely watches television even though I have an Astro subscription with over hundred channels. These days I download all my entertainment needs from the Internet. I am not advocating piracy.

I could not afford to schedule my life around Astro show time. I refuse to let media companies control my life. I don’t need to be in front of the TV at certain time to watch certain shows or watch the news. I’ll watch my shows whenever and wherever I wish.

Even though I got Astro Max, I still need to remember to switch it on at certain time. Which is stupid. It should download shows I miss automatically.

Beside, everything I want to watch is not on the TV or Astro channels. The only way for me to get it is from the Internet. When the files are on my disc, I may choose whenever I wish to watch them.

Not all of my download are illegal ones. Over half of the shows I am downloading are podcast, audio and video. Shows from Revision3, Twit Network, Smashface (Epic-FU) and other shows produced independently.

The best part is that I don’t have to be aware of which shows will be aired on what time. Once I’ve subscribe to the show feeds, iTunes will automatically download new episodes when there is one ready to download. It’s such a no brainer. This is how TV shows should come to you. Unlike Astro Max or other PVR, you don’t have to set it or remember to turn the set on at certain time.

The shows comes to you, not the other way around.

In the future, everybody will be getting their TV shows this way. You don’t have to rush back home to watch your show. Kids don’t have to wake up early on weekends to catch the morning cartoon shows.

To complement this, Apple made wonderful devices like the iPod Touch and iPhone for bringing your media portable and the Apple TV to bring your downloaded media to the television set. Other companies are also joining in. Sony with it’s PlayStation3 and PlayStation Portable. Microsoft with Zune, XBox and MediaCenter PCs. Archos, iriver, and much more.

Of cause it is far from perfect. Several issues need to be fixed. First is the Internet speed. I wish my broadband speed is much faster. TM Net’s Streamyx, no matter how they advertise it, is not a speed demon in any sense. I don’t really have a choice when it come to broadband provider.

Next, the media companies and studios also need to loosen up. Start using other means of distribution, like the Internet and P2P. Think out of the box, literally out of the television box.

As Technology advances, the cost of producing a show gets lower, more and more people could afford to produce shows independently. With the Internet as their main distribution medium, they could reach more audience then television network could ever dream of. Just check out the number of hits a popular YouTube video gets, and compare it to today’s most popular TV show.

The days of ‘old’ media are numbered.