Why not free?

Last month, CBS offered free streaming video of two popular comedies, "Two and a Half Men," and "How I Met Your Mother," on Yahoo Inc.'s site. That experiment yielded nearly 500,000 downloads — and a jump in viewership.

"We saw a pop among the younger demos the following week," said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, referring to the coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic.

As excited as I am that networks are now offering programs online, (Apple, for example, sells popular shows such as ABC's "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" for $1.99 an episode) -- why not take a look at the CBS experiment and make online content free? It certainley doesn't appear to hurt viewership of the program, in fact, it appears to promote it.