If you're like most households, you pay $60 to $80 a month for cable television - a service that gives you very little control over what's on. In fact, it holds you to its schedule (for the most part). The cable companies tell you what your viewing choices are at a given time and put restrictions (in terms of simply not offering) on certain content you may otherwise want to watch.

If you have high-speed internet at home, the Boxee Box offers up much more in terms of content choices, including tons of free content and lots of premium (pay for) content. For the premium content, its al la carte (something the cable companies should have been providing all along if they were truly customer focused - which they are not), meaning you only pay for the services you want.

The Boxee Box (available at Future Shop, Best Buy and Canada Computers for about $200) connects your HDTV to the internet while providing an easy to use, lean back on the sofa interface. It can also play pretty well any audio or video source file you throw at it. It allows you to stream videos, music and pictures from your USB drive, network drive or any PC in your house. It can connect via ethernet (strongly preferred) or wireless (sometimes choppy streaming). The Boxee Box also has an SD card reader, letting you quickly access pictures and videos from your digital cameras and video cameras.

The real advantage for the Boxee Box is the amount of content you can readily access out of the box. In addition to a TV shows library and movies library (most titles are free), the Boxee Box has 260+ apps (think of apps as channels for comparing to cable purposes). There are apps catering to almost any interest, from TV shows and movies, to sports, technology programs, podcasts, news, weather, music, etc. (Click here to see a partial list of the many apps available on the Boxee Box)

Lilyhammer is a Netflix original television series, starring Steve Van Zandt, about a New York gangster trying to start a new life in Norway. The first season premiered in the North America and Latin America on February 6, 2012, with all 8 episodes being available in full on the server for streaming. Lilyhammer is the first original and co-produced series by Netflix.

If you don't have Netflix, you're out of luck.

Here's the first three minutes of season 1, episode 1: 

Video recorded using my Sony Bloggie (disclaimer: I don't have steady hands). I access Netflix on my HDTV via my Boxee Box.

Looking for an alternative to cable television? In the last twelve months, there have been a few solid alternatives that hit the market. I am referring of course to the OTT (Over The Top) boxes introduced last year, including the Boxee Box and GoogleTV, as well as new models of the AppleTV and Roku players. These devices let you harness the ever expanding world of online content and channel it to your HDTV. 

While these devices have been on the market for roughly a year now, deciding on which one to buy can be very confusing. To help you choose which one is right for you, take a look at the comparison below:

Full disclosure: I have been a happy Boxee Box user since Christmas of last year. Other devices (to some degree) can also be used to watch online content on your HDTV, including game consoles such as the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii.  

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YouTube Movies finally launches in Canada today after launching in the U.S. earlier this year. Depending on how you look at it, Google's new service either competes directly with Netflix for Canadians’ media dollars, or can be used to augment a Netflix subscription with additional titles. With YouTube Movies, consumers are able to rent movies for $3.99 or $4.99 each (there is a small selection of free movies as well). After paying, you have 30 days to start watching the movie, and 48 hours to finish it once you start it.

In recent months, YouTube has partnered with several movie studios to bring free versions of older movies, most recently The Godfather. They also have signed agreements with Alliance Films and Mongrel Media to bring Canadian-produced content to the fore. They also state that rented movies will have free extras included in the price, much like on a DVD, like cast interviews and bloopers.

There really is a world of content available via the Boxee Box. In addition to the categories for television shows and movies on the Boxee Box home screen, the Box allows you to keep up with (and share) what your friends are watching online and allows you to stream content from your local network to your HDTV. But even more important than all of the above are the growing number of apps accessible on the Box. These apps, totaling more than 190 as at August 5, 2011, allow you to do everything from watch movies (including your favourite blockbusters, indie films and timeless classics), TV shows, live sports, music videos, news and video clips from the Internet on your HDTV. 

Here is a list of most of the apps currently available on the Boxee Box.

Thinking about cancelling or downgrading your over-priced cable television service but worried about what that will mean in terms of your access to watching live sports on tv? Not to fret – nowadays there are plenty of options for watching live sports on your HDTV sans cable.  Many of these options are better than their cable counterparts. In fact, more freedom to watch the games I want and an improved viewing experience were two of the driving forces (among others) behind my decision to unplug the cable box.

As a baseball fan living in Canada, I have long been tired of being told by the cable companies what teams and games I was allowed to watch. While the games I did want to watch were available over cable, this was only the case if you subscribed to MLB Extra Innings on top of the already hefty cable bill.

Fortunately, a better way became available. In December 2010, I got a Boxee Box and now subscribe to MLB.tv which I stream over the Boxee Box to my HDTV. Baseball has never looked better. I get to watch the games I want and I get to choose between home and away broadcasts. I can even watch the game live or at any point thereafter, skipping ahead to the innings I want to see. Oh, and with the Boxee Box, there are also apps for NHL, NBA, UFL, cricket, racing, etc.

Tired of paying $77 per month for cable TV only to be told what you can watch and when you can watch it?  Would you rather pay much less and have the freedom to watch whatever you want, when you want?  I can’t see why anyone would say no to either of these questions.  So how do you get the freedom to watch what you want, whenever you want, for a fraction of the price of cable?  Connect the internet to your HDTV with the Boxee Box – that’s how. 

With the Boxee Box you can watch movies (including your favourite blockbusters, indie films and timeless classics), TV shows, live sports, videos and clips from the Internet on your HDTV. The Boxee Box pipes it all right into your living room – on demand. 

Check out this video to learn more:

Last summer, two days after Netflix said it was coming to Canada, Rogers rushed to lower the data limits on its internet service plans. That stinks of anti-competitiveness, plain and simple. Bell soon followed suit with its Usage Based Billing scheme, which it implemented because they believe that bits are a finite resource and consumers should pay more for consuming more. 

Regardless, Netflix Canada launched here last September, offering movies and TV shows streamed over the Web for a monthly subscription fee of $8. While I find the content offering via Netflix Canada to be quite good, especially when compared to Rogers On Demand, it does have some limitations, especially when it comes to new releases. However, these limitations are mainly the result of the anti-competitive telecommunications oligopoly that has the CRTC in its back pocket. That’s right, Bell, Rogers, Shaw et al.  You see, the CRTC in their infinite wisdom, allowed these conglomerates to vertically integrate so that they now own and/or control the content we watch, the companies that broadcast it and the cables, wires and signals that transport it to our homes.  

It only makes sense that cable companies don’t want consumers to have Netflix and other OTT (Over The Top) services. Cable companies have been charging us $75 or more per month for cable television service. For that $75 a month, consumers get to be told what they can watch and (for the most part) when they can watch it. Now, with Netflix and other OTT services, consumers are able to have more choices, both in terms of what to watch and when to watch it, AND for a fraction of the price of cable service. That should be illegal, shouldn’t it? 

Don’t worry, the CRTC has Canadians' best interests at heart and are now looking into how it can regulate Netflix and other OTT services (or outright ban them) so that Bell, Rogers and Shaw don’t have to worry about them. After all, we must protect Bell, Rogers and Shaw at all costs. Canadian consumers have been restricted from watching a lot of international content for a very long time. Our anti-competitive oligopoly of telecom companies and the CRTC are hell bent on letting anything change that now. 

Screw you internet. Go away Netflix. Canadians don’t want more choice. The CRTC speaks for all of us.

Hulu still isn't freely available in Canada yet without a workaround such as a U.S. VPN service. While it's still possible to watch some of your favorite shows on local TV station's websites: CBC, Global, CityTV, and CTV, the selection is still very limited in comparison to sites such as Hulu 

So why can't we access Hulu (without a workaround) in Canada? Well, it has very little to do with protecting Canadian content or culture. Simply put, the Canadian TV networks use their bedfellows at the CRTC to block Canadians from getting content direct from the U.S. The Canadian networks want you to watch U.S. programing on their channels so we see Canadian advertising to go with it.