It sounds counterintuitive - put free over-the-air TV broadcasting where a lot of the audience has gone - online streaming. It sounds like a no-brainer. But networks and affiliates are completely against it, arguing the current system is the only way to go. And "go" is what they may do if they continue to resist.

There have been several attempts to put local TV stations fully online, meaning not just for news or clips, but the entire broadcast day, complete with all television shows. The latest company to try it was something called "Local BTV" in the U.S. which streamed local channels full time over the web from various markets across the country. 

The interface allowed subscribers to watch network shows in real time, freeze the video, go back and forth on the show as it was airing and even have cloud DVR storage for recording favourite shows, all for a nominal monthly fee.

So what happened? The inevitable - the stations and networks were infuriated by the move, worried about rights and lack of compensation for using their otherwise free signals and shut the service down. Its website is still up and a demo of what once was can be found here. (Rogers, Bell and Corus would likely have similar objections in this country, if the CRTC would even allow it.)

Still, some feel this is the future for OTA and as audiences continue to shrink, the question may be not if - but when.

How US Broadcasters Might Stream More "Freely"