On The Beach Blog

...is directed at the "premium" cable channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz which have taken to ending episodes of series such as "Boardwalk Empire" or "Homeland" by directing viewers to their Websites...

"To uncover the truth you have to know where to look. Only the official Homeland site has the exclusive content you need to get the whole story and it's only at SHO.com and the official Showtime app for smartphones."

Yeah? Screw them!

I pay my cable company a chuck of money each month for those premium channels because I like the "exclusive" (there's that word again!) programming they make available to their subscribers.

For the most part that programming is heads, shoulders and torsos above what is available on over-the-air channels... the networks and "off-nets."

HBO, which I'd been boycotting for several decades for political reasons, finally won me over on a "look-see" basis with "The Sopranos," then held me with series like "Car­nivale," "Deadwood" and "Game of Thrones."

(Showtime has been on my cable even since Spotlight went dark in 1983, while Starz is currently included in an entertainment package.)

I'm willing to pay for the premium cable channels not just because of the quality of their programming, but because they are "commercial free" and the movies they show are not edited for either content or length.

(There's nothing quite as satisfying as a pre-feature screen advising "N," ­L and "V" signifying that what's coming is uncut and shown exactly how the director intended!)

What I don't want is, after an hour's worth of gut-clenching "Homeland" or immensely entertaining "Game of Thrones," that I need to log on to a Webpage to find out what is really going on, the suggestion being that the epi­sode I've just watched might've short-changed me!

And I don't "get" the reason behind the referral... it's not like HBO or Showtime are selling advertising on their sites, so they're not getting revenue from page views or click-throughs.

Is it really all about getting viewers to the Websites to purchase series-related merchandise... mugs, tee-shirts, DVDs1, board games?

C'mon, guys, cut the crap!