YouTube Makes it That Much Easier To Cut Off Cable

As if I didn’t already have enough reasons to cancel my cable, YouTube has activated their Shows feature. Hulu is the place you go to catch new episodes of stuff like Southland, Life, and Lie To Me. Most, but definitely not all, of your favorite shows are freely available to watch on Hulu. Now, YouTube has jumped in the game with some of your old favorites.

YouTube’s new Shows section has such hits as TJ Hooker, Married With Children, and (gasp!) Star Trek. Not only that but you can catch up on the shows from your childhood with He-Man, She-Ra, and Jackie Chan Adventures. Ok, maybe you’re a little too old for that last one, but I’m sure your kids will love it.

I have seen a lot of backlash regarding this new move. Many of the most active in in YouTube’s community feel like these new changes are an attempt to bury that very thing which made it popular in the first place: User Content. I’m not gonna lie, I probably have 20+ videos of me singing random crap on YouTube, so I can understand if people are upset about competing with full-length episodes of at-some-point-popular shows.

Don’t think YouTube has simply integrated a bunch of old cartoons and sitcoms. They have also incorporated a massive cache of full-length movies. Take a look at Electric Purgatory, Carrie (Stephen King is the greatest), and Starman. This doesn’t mean much for Hulu, as the two service carry completely different content, but it does give cable-tv customers a reason to doubt their allegiance to a multi-media conglomerate. Why keep paying for cable when you can watch so many movies and shows directly onYouTube?

It’s too early to see how this will pan out, but I have no problems being able to watch pretty much everything on demand. Not sure if this is a desperate attempt by Google to make some money of the YouTube thing or just a smart move in general.

Do you think Google/YouTube is burying user generated videos and giving paid content a priority? Will these new features help you kick cable to the curb? Let me know what’s up in the comments.