I’ve been looking at iTunes, Joost, and the other Internet-based ways to consume TV and am beginning to wonder if I could live without cable. It’s more or less possible to view episodic content, from shows like Lost and Heroes to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report using just iTunes. Sure, it’s not HD or even widescreen, but with the Apple TV now out, I’m sure that’s just around the corner. Microsoft is offering a similar service with it’s XBox Live offering, where you can download shows right to your XBox 360. Sony should be coming out with something as well.

My biggest concerns are around “live” broadcasts, things like sports, cable news, and weather. I can’t imagine TV without ESPN or football on Sunday or the other things that I can’t get over-the-air (OTA). No CNN or MSNBC on election night or during election season would be weird and I take the Weather Channel for granted.

At least for the news and weather things, there are OTA choices in the HDTV world. Almost every city I’ve been in using OTA HDTV, one of the local stations is broadcasting an automated 24-hour weather forecast on one of the sub channels. There are also more frequent news breaks on some of them, as well.

Really, it comes down to sports. Ultimately, it’s why ESPN can charge the subscriber fees it can. There are a ton of people just like me who get cable primarily to have ESPN. So, any world that replaces cable would need to offer a way to subscribe to ESPN, local live sports (NESN, YES, etc.), a la carte. Knowing how much ESPN relies on subscriber fees (worth several billion a year according to public estimates), that’s going to be a tough sell with the networks, let alone Comcast, Cox, AT&T, etc.

Still, I’d like to take a stab at what it would cost to watch the shows I really watch every month plus a guestimate on the “live” content based on current package pricing. I don’t know cable subscriber fees charged by folks like NESN, YES, etc. so I’m basing the price of getting all the Eagles games, for example, on 1/16th of the NFL Sunday Ticket price.

So, with that said, here is the list of TV I watch along with my estimated prices. Where available, I’ve taken prices directly from iTunes, and I’m estimating what I’d be willing to pay just for ESPN or CNN or the other “live” channels I want that aren’t OTA. These prices are per year.

My monthly cable bill is about $70 per month ($72.62 including box rental, remote rental, some of the taxes, and fees). That totals out to $840. So, I would be saving over $100 per year, avoiding commercials in most of the episodic TV (ESPN and live TV plus OTA could still sell advertising). The shows would be available when I want them and, if I used iTunes, the shows would be saved on my drives, available for viewing later over and over.

Am I forgetting any shows? How does this math work out for those of you that watch more TV? Keep in mind that OTA channels like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. would still exist, so you wouldn’t lose things like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars or even Lost if you wanted to see it at the scheduled time.

Also, considering the paltry (by comparison) subscriber fees charged by Discovery, History Channel, TLC, etc., an a la carte broadcast-style offering would probably be within budget with the $100 savings.

Anyway, consider this a rough, back-of-the-envelope estimate. I’m curious what folks think is missing?

PS. All of this was prompted by this article on CNN reporting on changing TV habits. While it’s hard to take seriously any article that fails to mention commercial skipping with DVRs, it’s worth reading.