Now there are more opportunities to watch more shows via more outlets than ever before. Forget to record “Lost”? Buy it from iTunes the day after broadcast. Want to get up to speed on HBO’s “The Sopranos?” Watch current and past episodes on Comcast’s OnDemand cable feature. Looking for that long-lost music video by some obscure band you once saw back in 1983? Chances are it’s on YouTube.

Who would have ever thought we’d see the day when we wouldn’t need TV to watch TV programs? Or that we wouldn’t have to watch TV networks to watch TV network shows? Clearly, television programs aren’t just for television broadcasts anymore.

Just ask Warner Bros. The media giant recently announced it would sell past TV shows on iTunes. Warner is also selling its “Aquaman” pilot on iTunes, even though there are no current plans to turn the pilot into a series.

Not to be confused with James Cameron’s “Aquaman” – the fictitious movie that was the center of last year’s “Entourage” story arc – Warner’s Aquaman was going to be a show about a young man with “amazing aquatic abilities.” Kind of like an underwater “Smallville.” However, when Warner and Paramount announced they would merge their respective networks – WB and UPN – into a new network christened CW, they had more shows than they had air time. In short, Aquaman got flushed.

But that doesn’t mean Aquaman doesn’t have fans. The pilot episode from iTunes costs $1.99.

The same goes for past series from the Warner vault. Shows like “Friends,” “The Flintstones” and “Babylon 5” are each available for just under 2 bucks on iTunes.

But as Warner announced its latest iTunes plans, NBC announced it was looking at a show that was originally rejected by the WB, and has only been seen on the Web.

Described as a show about two people from Ohio who move out to California to star in their own reality show, “Nobody’s Watching” was originally supposed to air on the WB last fall. However, Warner eventually passed on the program.

But NBC took notice when a copy of the pilot ended up on YouTube. Now the network plans to create a series of new Internet-only shows, and the program could eventually find its way back to TV, according to E Online.

But the Web is only one alternative to traditional TV, as television strives to match the Internet’s see-it-now capabilities.

Like Comcast’s OnDemand, which includes episodes of past and present TV series and such features as interview segments from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.” Recently the USA Network chose to air two programs – the season debut of “Monk” and a new show, “Psyche,” before either episode actually aired on the cable channel.

Then there’s “Arrested Development,” the critically acclaimed yet ratings-challenged comedy that aired on Fox for three years. The trials and tribulations of the Bluth family – 53 episodes in all – will be available on TV as well as online.

Fox Entertainment Group MSN, HDNet and G4 are collaborating to make it happen. MSN will have exclusive portal rights to syndicate the show for three years, and will start streaming episodes to its users later this year. Meanwhile, Mark Cuban’s HDNet will have exclusive HD TV access to the series, while Comcast’s G4 cable channel has acquired basic cable rights and will start showing episodes starting in October.

Like music, television is becoming more flexible. VCRs may have freed us from having to watch shows when they air, but now we don’t even need to remember to set our VCRs or DVRs in order to stay up-to-date with our favorite programs.

Who knows? Someday we may not even need a TV or a computer to watch our favorites. Instead, the networks might beam programs directly to our brains via some kind of wireless, telepathic device. Of course, we don’t have that kind of technology today.

Maybe next year . . .