Just broke up with my cable TV

[ioni]

I grew up with cable and when my parents canceled it, I started paying for it in their house. I canceled cable at my place 2 years ago and between Hulu and Netflix, I have more to watch than ever before.

 

[Regs]

I actually use TV to find things to research more in detail over the internet. I would love the extra money, but I just find it somewhat comforting to come home to.

 

[D1gger]

My company makes money providing a service to our cable supplier, so I am happy to give them my business for TV, phone and internet services.

 

[mnewsham]

if you are in philly, there is a blackout on Phillies on MLB.tv.


how about college sports and stuff?

Im not all that pressed with watching college sports regularly or live so not a big deal for me. Many ISP are affiliated with ESPN and will allow streaming of ESPN 3 games and such I think.

 

[rudeguy]

Here is my input:

Obviously I am biased. I work for a cable company. I love my cable channels. I like being able to watch new tv shows and I really love watching movies. I'm a movie nut and can never have enough to watch in that department. Plus the premium channels have really great series that I like to check out.

But I still subscribe to Netflix and Hulu mainly for older tv shows. Their movie selection blows now. I have Amazon Prime but can ever find anything I want to watch on there. Did I mention I have a Roku and sometimes stream on my phone?

The point is that no two people use their services the same way. Some people are happy with OTA. Some can't stand it. Some love Netflix, some canceled and never went back.

Do what makes you comfortable. No one needs tv, so it's all about what makes you and your family happy.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Dropped it a year ago. Only had it for a year out of the last 10 years of living on my own. Waste of money IMO. Lmk when I can order a stripped down local and sports channel only package for $20 a month and I'm in. Until then I'm good without it.

 

[xBiffx]

Dropped it a year ago. Only had it for a year out of the last 10 years of living on my own. Waste of money IMO. Lmk when I can order a stripped down local and sports channel only package for $20 a month and I'm in. Until then I'm good without it.

Agreed. Cable needs to get with it and start offering a la carte channels.

 

[rudeguy]

Agreed. Cable needs to get with it and start offering a la carte channels.

Do you realize how much those channels would cost?

 

[gorb]

Haven't had it for 10 years. That's about a $7,000 savings. Don't miss it.

same here 🙂

 

[xBiffx]

Do you realize how much those channels would cost?

In the current market situation, yes they would be extremely expensive. That's why cable needs to grow some balls and tell the content providers to pound sand until they can do this.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Do you realize how much those channels would cost?

Right now Comcast is getting $0 from me. If they offered channels a la carte they might be able to sell me the few channels with shows I'd like to see before streaming and discs are available. It's their choice not to negotiate with content providers to allow this.

 

[Sheep]

Have had cable TV (medium sized package) forever. Canceled the U200 and replaced it with nothing. I'm hoping my retained internet media subscriptions to Hulu plus and amazon prime will balance out the entertainment side.

Congrats. The combination of OTA, Netflix, Hulu (and to a much lesser degree Amazon which I have because I've been a Prime member for the past 3 years) works well for me.

What has everyone's experience been with this? Did you go kicking/screaming back to Cable and plead for forgiveness? Or were you enlightened and wondered why you didn't do it sooner?

I'm far from one of those "TV rots your mind" retards, but I have a really hard time justifying $100 a month for expanded cable. The amount I've saved in the past 3 years by not having cable speaks for itself. I still get 9 hours of NFL games every Sunday which is plenty--this was my biggest concern when dropping cable.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I don't know anybody who has regretted going with internet/netflix/no cable.

 

[Imported]

We're considering it. We have cable, but we mostly use Netflix and Hulu+ to watch TV shows. The Wife Acceptance Factor passed the threshold with H+ and our connected Vizio TV. We haven't even used the (free for this year) DVR that the cable company gave us.

Sports are my biggest problem. For the most part, I get the NHL games I want on Gamecenter ($150/year), and MLB.tv has really gotten better too ($125 a year?). There's not much of a solution for NFL football since I don't think DirecTV is doing Sunday Ticket as a streaming-only option this year (not even for people who can't get DTV, which I cannot due to the tall trees blocking my view of the southern sky). I have kind of lost interest in the NFL, though.

So it's on the table, but we haven't done it yet.

Believe Sunday Ticket was available to those with a PS3 last year. Don't know the details as I didn't try it out myself.

 

[mvbighead]

The wife and I went Netflix/Hulu/OTA around a year or more ago. She misses Food Network, I miss ESPN and NFL. Outside of those few things, cable was simply not worth it.

Roughly $1000 or more a year for something that we might watch an hour or two a night at the most, usually less. Now, for $25 bucks a month with Netflix/Hulu, we have more than we care to watch.

I love watching football, but I have resigned myself to go watch it elsewhere when it isn't broadcast locally. In any case, spending $80 a month for DirectTv PLUS $300 or whatever for Sunday Ticket is not something I am ever going to consider.

 

[thomsbrain]

Let me put it this way: A friend hooked me up with free digital cable and free HBO/Cinemax/Starz along with my special-deal cable modem. In six months, I have never even taken the cable box out of the bag to hook it to my TV.

Why the hell would anyone EVER want to watch broadcast television anymore?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Why the hell would anyone EVER want to watch broadcast television anymore?

The only reason I can think of is the ease of use. Get the remote turn the TV and cable box (if it's digital) and you're set. Imagine trying to explain to grandma that you have to turn on a computer to watch TV and have to find her new sources for shows when one gets shut down.

 

[jersiq]

Any married with children folks done this? Am wondering how you do so?

Please spare me the "your kids shouldnt watch TV". My kids dont watch that much TV (and dont own any video games). As long as weather permits outside play, they get maybe an hour/day tops during the week, and maybe a bit of a binge one weekend afternoon while daddy is watching "the game".

Still, it's tough to give up - me with sports/movies/game of thrones, and a couple of regular cable dramas, wife with wifey shows, and the various kids stuff.

I can see doing it if I were still 20's and single. Much easier for a single technology-capable guy to order on demand entertainment than it is to do the same for a whole family (who arent very good with tech).

I've got a 6, 5 and 3 year old and they do just fine with the kids shows on Netflix. We only have that, not H+ or anything else. We do limit TV to at most 45 minutes max and they average only 20 minutes a night. Even with that amount they still have plenty to watch. In fact, they have been watching all old school 80's cartoons, so I get to watch with them and relive my childhood.

 

[Evadman]

I gave it up a while ago. I honestly never noticed a difference.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Dropped it a year ago. Only had it for a year out of the last 10 years of living on my own. Waste of money IMO. Lmk when I can order a stripped down local and sports channel only package for $20 a month and I'm in. Until then I'm good without it.

Oh please this. I hear google is starting a tv service so it will be interesting to see what kind of packages they offer.

 

[IGBT]

dumped it years ago. It's only tv. you don't need it.

 

[Craig234]

A friend hooked me up with free digital cable and free HBO/Cinemax/Starz along with my special-deal cable modem. In six months, I have never even taken the cable box out of the bag to hook it to my TV.

Why the hell would anyone EVER want to watch broadcast television anymore?

Free or stolen? The rest of your post isn't clear to me. You haven't watched any of it? And you are saying nothing on broadcast tv is good?

 

[Sheep]

Free or stolen? The rest of your post isn't clear to me. You haven't watched any of it? And you are saying nothing on broadcast tv is good?

Since he mentioned never hooking up the cable box, it sounds like one of those "TV is bad and rots your brain!" rants as opposed to "CBS/NBC/ABC/Fox suck!" ones.

 

[jumpncrash]

I have cable here right now, but when I move I'm sure as hell not paying for it, but I will miss my hockey 🙁

 

[SP33Demon]

I dropped it, and just go with MLBTV and NHL CenterIce for my sports (more than enough) and can watch any game, also ESPN3 streaming for random sports sht.

Netflix has all the good old throwback TV (Knight Rider, A-Team for example) and documentaries (I actually get to learn instead of veg) such as Ken Burns "Baseball", regular Hulu/network websites for other crap like Big Bang/South Park/Jon Stewart, and in the process of doing OTA DVR for the rest (NBA/NFL/College football). Amazon on Demand fills the time when I'm really really bored which is rare (and AoD is free for students btw). All I really miss is ESPN but I catch all the highlights online which is more time efficient by watching highlights of sht I only care about. Also, if there's a big game on cable that I REALLY care about, I'll go out to the pub to watch it with friends.

Movies, I can rent or buy on Vudu (HDX only, usually 19.99 but you own it forever in the Walmart cloud + closest to Blu-Ray you can get streaming) and for non-HD I just buy the Blu-Ray DVD for big names (that won't license to Vudu) such as Marvel/DC stuff (Dark Knight/Spider-man).

So total out of pocket per year is < 1/4 of cable. I have more time to do what I want and be more active (kept 15 lbs off since last Sept), eat healthier (cook more), and spend more time with family. I don't feel bad about dropping money to go out to the movies with my g/f (usually only do IMAX for blockbusters) with the money I've saved. RIP channel surfing and cable TV.

As an aside, it's rather ridiculous that Verizon FIOS is charging me $5/mo to NOT have a landline phone but their internet streaming is so rock solid (yes even on 15/5) that I put up with it.

Oh, also I use the nifty $80 Sony Blu-Ray DVD player (hard line, not wireless - that model is extra) for Netflix, Vudu, and AoD streaming. Haven't tried ESPN3 but it can do websites so I'll test it this weekend.