I should be able to cut down on sports. It's easier if you're engaged in coding to forget to turn a game on.
The cartoons I watch all are shown on Cartoon Network. Since I've seen most of the Family Guy episodes, that's easy to skip. The anime is harder. I find the stories much better than other programs on television.
I recently found a place in NYC that sells some popular anime on DVD imported from Japan. That allows me to get huge chunks of the series in one shot, as opposed to 1 or 2 episodes/week on TV. For example, I bought the entire Death Note series 2 weeks ago. It came in 3 containers with 3 DVDs each.
Since I don't live in NYC, I don't have to worry about frequenting there too often.