Even the only thing stopping all movies for rent being online “legally” is Hollywood that does not want to lose their CD sales. Hence, Netflix and Amazon are only allocated a block of movies or a certain number they can stream at a time. This is why they rotate movies and TV programs too.
I picked up the Fox App and you can watch all the TV programs, with commercials the day after it shows. If you hate commercials, then you can purchase it on Apple, Amazon and Google.
Some of those ‘apps’ require one to sign in through their cable/satellite provider.
It does seem that some networks are now bypassing that and going direct to the customer. Several networks have ROKU apps now. Some of those do no require the user to sign in through a cable/satellite provider. The offerings also seem to have fewer commercials than regular TV, which about 20 minutes per hour of non-program commercials and PSAs.
One problem with the ‘direct’ approach is that many customers will not want to sign up for a dozen or more networks with their individual websites and queues and costs.
Cable/satellite companies make it easy to get multiple networks. If the networks were smart, they would come up with a more singular method, while bypassing cable/satellite.
Of course, the cable/satellite companies will squeal.
My cable is currently in a fees-feud with a couple of broadcast channels. Those channels are being blocked by the cable company. The channels are encouraging people to drop cable and to satellite. [These cost feuds happen frequently when cable-network contracts are up for renewal. Ironically, just this month, the cable company just upped their fees to consumers for many of their services.]
That is what I like about Hulu. You get all the tv shows commercial free the day after it airs. Hulu has all of the major networks and the subsidiary as well.