"free" to watch on a physical tv if you pay the monthly cable fee that allows you to get the programming you want. That's not really free.

Me, I watch very little tv programming. So little that paying for cable every month isn't worth it to me. Now, I actually haven't looked into it, so I don't know how much episodes through iTunes cost, but for someone like me who only occasionally happens upon something I want to watch, and would sometimes prefer not to wait for it to be available on DVD (which I might rent or purchase), being able to purchase as a download closer in time to the air date, seems like a good thing.