Vikings invade internet streaming as season 2 premieres

I just recently spoke of the changing face of today's media world, with more TV becoming internet-based. There are early struggles with this, as cable and satellite providers are loath to lose those nice monthly fees and become simple bandwidth providers.

Now, with the debut of season two of Vikings, the popular History Channel drama about Ragnor and his crew, things take a turn towards the future.

The premiere episode is up for live streaming on the internet, and I don't mean that it's on BitTorrent, though it likely is. Customers can simply visit the show's website and watch episode one in its entirety. No restrictions -- no proving you have a TV service subscription. It is just simply there and free.

Brother’s War is 45 minutes, and you get ads, but that is certainly understandable. Nobody loves them, but these things must be monetized in some way, otherwise they cease to exist.

Combine this with the recent Fox-NFL streaming of the Super Bowl without restrictions and we are starting to see progress in the market.

Also note that this seems to be US-only from what I have been able to find out from colleagues based elsewhere.