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Wired has a piece about Predicting the Next Web-to-TV Stars. While I liked the videos and loved that Jake and Amir got a nod, I thought this article failed to ask an important question: Does it actually make sense for these people to transition from the web to TV?

Let’s think about what people like Jake and Amir do versus a TV show, like Saturday Night Live.

Skit Length: Jake and Amir can make the length of a web skit serve the needs of the comedy. SNL has to fill specific blocks in a 90-minute show and consider the pacing of its commercials. How many times have we watched a funny idea on SNL die a slow death as a skit drags on way longer than it should? There’s a reason why SNL Digital Shorts have become the the buzz generator for the show—they’re short and well-paced. The web has only accelerated viewers’ natural ADD.

Skit Quality vs. Scheduling: I’m sure CollegeHumor requires Jake and Amir to produce a minimum number of skits in a given time period. But, compared to TV, they probably have massive scheduling flexibility. If they have three good ideas this week, they can do three skits. If they have one good idea, they can probably get away with one skit. SNL’s gotta fill that 90-minute show with good ideas or bad ideas every week—unless they’re on hiatus. I always hate it when SNL is on hiatus and good opportunities for topical comedy pass them by. Ace and Jocelyn can strike whenever the iron is hot.

Artist Freedom: Jake and Amir can be as edgy as they wanna be on unsponsored skits. Even when the Hardly Working skits are sponsored, they usually feature ads for stuff like Grand Theft Auto. (I can’t really picture Rockstar Games having moral issues with skit content.) And, CollegeHumor seems to be given a wide berth by IAC. SNL, on the other hand, has to please a corporation, mainstream advertisers, and network censors. Sure, they often push the envelope. But, I bet there are times when the envelope pushes back. I dare Andy Samberg to say “fuck” this Saturday Night.

Pay: Okay, okay, so Amy Poehler is probably pullin’ down a bit more than Jake and Amir…combined. But, will that always be the case? As TV audiences shrink and fragment while Internet use grows, TV may not reign supreme and pay the most bucks. SNL has done a good job of getting key content online and even making it embeddable. But, little of it is as viral as what Jake and Amir do. SNL is TV that gets repackaged for the web. Jake and Amir create for the web. Web viewers can feel that. Besides, the profit margin on the Jake and Amir T-Shirts is probably pretty high.

To me, TV comedy is the past and web comedy is the future. So, despite Wired’s dreams for them, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Jake and Amir stick to the web—while maybe doing an occasional Will Ferrell film. That would be so ace!

Marco just wrote about his frustrations with paying so much for entertainment cable and getting so little in return. I reached this same boiling point a few months back, though my frustrations extended to Internet access in addition to entertainment cable. So, I killed cable and here was my solution:

• We switched from a cable modem to Verizon FiOS. It’s a lot faster for about the same money as I was paying for my cable modem. (Admittedly, not everyone can get FiOS, but there is probably a solution that is as good or better than your cable modem for about the same money.)
• My wife and I already didn’t have a home phone and we still don’t. With mobile phone, Skype, iChat, etc., a home phone is just more money, another number to remember, and another voice mail to check.
• I bought an HD Over-The-Air Antenna and a TiVo Series 3 (the lower-end model). So, we can now record broadcast content in HD for free. Sweet. As bonus, I can use the TiVo Series 3 to view Amazon Unbox content, which includes a pretty extensive TV and movie selection.
• I also bought an Apple TV, so we can view content from the iTunes store on our TV.
• We already had a DVD, so we can still buy or rent DVD content.

So, now we don’t pay for cable at all. We either get our entertainment in broadcast HD for free or we purchase/rent the specific content we want via Amazon Unbox, iTunes Store, or DVD. (If you watch live, non-broadcast sports, this plan won’t work for you. But, that’s not an issue for us.)

The upfront costs of all of this were significant, I won’t deny that. But, the monthly TiVo subscription of $17 is our only monthly payment now for TV entertainment. No cable bill. And, buying/renting the content we can’t get free via broadcast is costing a small fraction of what our cable bill did. Best of all, during the holidays and the writers’ strike, while everyone else is paying $80 or more a month for re-runs and reality shows, we’re only paying $17 for our TiVo.

We’re saving enough money that we’ll probably recoup our initial costs within a year a two. And, I so love not giving the cable company money each month!