For the past few months I have been trying to find a way to eliminate the cable bill. I discovered my family really only watches the local networks and a few cable channels. One solution would be to go with digital television. That would have provided the network programming, but would have cut out the few cable programs we did watch. Another would have been to steal programming from PirateBay, but I enjoy my freedom and don't have millions to spend on lawyer fees.

Then I discovered Hulu and Boxee. Hulu, a partnership of NBC and Fox, tends to have most of the content my family watches. Boxee allowed me to pull Hulu, Joost, YouTube and a few other feeds into a makeshift set-top box and stream this Internet content through to the television. The content looks good, almost as good as cable, and while I have to watch a few commercials, the programs are free. Then this past week, Hulu asked Boxee to pull the Hulu service. In a blog post, Hulu pointed the blame at the 'content providers' who didn't want Hulu content appearing through the Boxee application.

After some work, I found another solution to allow me to keep streaming Hulu through the TV. It involves a product called GoPlay and my PS3. Another hour of hacking, but everyone's content can continue to be streamed through the computer to the TV.

It is this redirecting of Internet content to my TV that is at the crux of the problem facing Boxee, Hulu, content producers and talent.

My family represents users of 'new media'. New media was highly contested and led to the Writer's Strike of 2007-2008. Now the Screen Actor's Guild (SGA) is poised to strike over the same issues the Writer's fought for. New media represents the future of content, yet content providers - the studios and producers (APMTP) - do not relish the idea of paying talent more for it.

Media companies and studios spent a lot of time last year fighting the Directors (DGA) and the Writers (WGA) to limit the amount of residuals paid to talent (actors, writers, directors, and backstage locals) for online content. These content providers do not want to have to pay increased residual fees just because I want to watch programming through my computer and bypass the old traditional ways of obtaining content.

I admit I am somewhat of a trailblazer; not many traditional TV families are sitting around trying to hack a computer and their PS3 to allow them to watch TV. They just turn it on. However, I rank with quite a number of people who enjoy taking content with them, and watching it when they want. DVR's are fine for this, but sometimes you just want to pull up content whenever you want. This is where Boxee, Hulu, Joost and YouTube garner their strength.

It is unfortunate the producers of content are so cemented to the traditional method of distributing programming, the model of network and cable channels. Their unwillingness to see the potential of Boxee spells disaster and could lead to Fox and NBC pulling the plug on Hulu, notwithstanding the Super Bowl promotional advertising.

Eventually, everyone will want new media and the content providers are going to have to play catchup. Before the end of the talent contracts, APMTP will have to negotiate fairly and in good faith with the Hollywood talent unions, because by then new media will have become the traditional way of viewing the content they produce.

BitTorrent anyone?