ABC's TV on demand sounds unattractive

Jeff Jarvis points to ABC's mooted online free shows:

On April 30, ABC will unveil a revamped Web site that will include a “theater” where people with broadband connections can watch free episodes of “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and other hit shows on their computers. Episodes will be available the morning after they air and will be archived so people can eventually view a whole season.

Episodes of the ABC shows — which can be paused, rewound and fast-forwarded — will contain commercial breaks that viewers can’t skip, making Disney hopeful it has figured out a way to turn the delivery of programs over the Web into a profit-generating business. Ten advertisers, including Ford Motor Co., Procter & Gamble, Universal Pictures and Unilever, already have signed up.

Well, it's nice to add another option, but this one is only attractive compared to classic over-the-air or 'live' cable broadcast. Let's do a comparison table:
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Delivery	Cost	Time constraint	space constraint	pros and cons
Broadcast	Free	must watch live or VCR	On your TVs in the US	Commercials interrupt - mute and wait
Cable	Monthly fee	must watch live or VCR	On your TVs in the US	Commercials interrupt it - mute and wait
TiVo	Monthly fee for cable and for TiVo directory	Can watch when you like, though will delete itself unless you check it	On the TV with the TiVo, in the US	Can fast-forward commercials; must subscribe or record in advance
New ABC Live	Monthly fee for broadband	Can watch when you like from 1 day after TV	On your computer with a net connection - US Only?	can't skip commercials
ABC on iTunes	Monthly fee for broadband; $1.99 per show with discounts for seasons	Can watch when you like from 1 day after TV, if you have a US credit card	On your computer with a net connection, don't need net connection after download; can transfer to iPod	no commercials; quality is not great
Bittorrent bootleg	Monthly fee for broadband	Can watch when you like from a few hours after TV, anywhere in the world	On your computer, don't need net connection after download; can transfer to iPod and other players; can make DVD with effort	Commercials edited out. Is of dubious legality.
DVD	Pay per series - prices vary	Can watch when you like from a few months after TV, region coded to annoy you	on your DVD player; On your computer, can transfer to other players with effort and semi-legal tools	Commercials edited out. Maybe extra features

Overall, the options are awkward. I can see some interesting gaps there - if I could subscribe to DVDs by mail every fortnight or month, while the series is still airing, that would be attractive (much more attractive than US networks' scheduling, which seems designed to confuse and disappoint and lose the flow of plot).
The iTunes series subscription could be attractive, if it was closer to the quality you get from HD-ripped Bittorrent or DVD. Tom Coates was saying something similar recently.

The other missing piece follows on from my post about net video last week- what if the cable companies had a cache of shows for a while after airing, or let you retrieve them from each others' PVRs? As the smarter ones have very high speed networks in their served neigbourhoods, this could be very responsive.

Update: Well, that was fast - Time Warner Cable are talking about just this kind of thing, though
the closing line "TV is more powerful than the Internet at the end of the day" is a bit of a shame.

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