"24" is a show I enjoy watching, even when the plotlines get astoundingly stupid - it's fast paced, and a fun show regardless. So, I set up my cable box DVR to record the show, so that I could see it in HD. Well. The box ran out of space, and I didn't get any warning on that - until I sat down to watch the show, and bam - nowhere in sight.

Ok - I can take some of the blame for not noticing that, but I would kind of like to catch up on the show. Fox isn't offering it on iTunes (or any competing service either), so there are no legal options available. In hunting around, I found this clueful statement from Fox:

"There are so many different cable outlets, a really fertile Internet, the ability to get information on wireless," Liguori said. "'24' is a great show for all those various options, but again, my job is to protect '24,' not to worry about what at this point is really a pretty meager audience" for video on demand or video iPods.

Asked whether he thought Disney jumped the gun on its deal with Apple's iTunes, Liguori said he was "neutral on what they've done."

"I think it was a very sexy announcement. But is it necessarily helping the show at this point? I don't know. None of us know at this stage. None of us know what those numbers are," he said.

What a complete chowderhead. "24" is a show that you want to watch each episode - otherwise, you just can't figure out what's happened with the plot twists. Is Fox giving me any way to do that? Nope. Re-run the last episode on F/X? Nope. Offer a download? Nope.

What's the most likely outcome? Well, having missed an episode (I also missed the first 2), I might not bother at all. There are plenty of other things stacked up on my DVRs, and - if I miss one of them (Lost, Desperate Housewives, for instance) - I can pick them up off iTunes. But hey - trust clue boy over there at Fox - that's meaningless. Maybe he can explain to the advertisers how that helps draw me to future shows.