The content is only free b/c advertising pays for it. Without the ads, that shit would be very expensive.
That reasoning makes sense when you're thinking about a particular configuration, but that's changing. If my partner and I had a child right now, he/she would grow up having no idea what a television is, because there isn't one in the house.
Before this would be strange, limited only to hippies wanting to make a statement. But the three people in my house aren't morally opposed, all grew up with TVs, and I'm the only geek. We don't have a TV because it never occurred to any of us to buy one when we moved in together (it's only been brought up once). All content which we'd wish to see is available online, for free, most even legally. It doesn't seem odd, only a minority of my friends (mid-to-late 20s) have a TV, so if broadcasters want to keep their jobs they should probably figure something out quickly...
It should be mentioned that I'm living in Holland which has most programming available online (uitzendinggemist.nl). Many US programs are available via their own website (Daily Show, Colbert, etc), and we were watching Hulu until they became geographically impaired. Result: we watch something else or someone downloads it if it was 'important'.