In general, I probably watch too much TV. Maybe not compared to some – I suppose there are shows on roughly three nights a week that I watch – but the TV is often just… on, in the background, tempting me with Family Feud and tryouts for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. And while that might not change in the immediate future, I’ve just taken my first step into a much larger world: I’ve gotten rid of my cable TV.
I started moving toward this decision months ago. I love my DVR, but it was mostly getting used to tape Golden Girls reruns instead of current shows, because I just wasn’t watching that many. Then, Netflix Instant really began pumping out the content – TV as well as movies – and I found I was using my TV as a giant monitor, hooked up to my computer, instead of actually using the cable.
Still, it was hard to let go. My family has ALWAYS had cable – I was one of the few kids I knew who always had KIDS Incorporated and David the Gnome in addition to Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. As silly as it seemed (my laptop might as well be an appendage), getting rid of cable felt like cutting myself off from the world.
Last week the decision was all but made for me. I turned on a show that had been taped on the DVR, and it played for a few seconds… and stopped. And started. And stopped. It was like watching a stop-motion version of the show, with the audio all garbled. No amount of stopping, fast-forwarding, or restarting helped. And it happened to every. show. that I taped that week.
So. I had a cable service that I pretty much hated to begin with and overcharged, and a DVR that was intermittently useless. I thought about switching to satellite, but there are too many factors (are there too many trees in my area? ) that I just didn’t feel like messing with… and more and more people I know are getting rid of it altogether, and using the Internet instead.
Thus, I made the somewhat rash decision of ditching it. Today. As in, I got off the phone, walked into the living room, and it was already gone. I admit, I haven’t really planned out all my backups. On the list for today: checking out Hulu and seeing if a subscription is worth it, and finding out what stations have their content online (do news stations have live feeds? They should.).
I do still have network stations, not that I’ve been watching anything on them since LOST and Dancing With the Stars (a not-so-guilty-pleasure) ended. I think I’ll wind up watching more PBS, which is a plus, I think (as long as it’s not Barney). I’m looking forward to Sherlock, of course (still a Moffat fangirl).
I think I’ll be able to find most of my TV shows online, eventually. And if not? Well, it’s not the end of the world (I hope). I don’t need to see The Soup (sob) or Degrassi (dear God what have I done). My TV will still get plenty of use from watching Netflix and playing WoW (yes, I play it on my TV. It’s enormous).
Because I would love to think that I’m the wave of the future and not making a choice I’ll regret, I’m telling myself that this is what we’re headed toward, anyway – an integration with the internet and TV and hopefully we’ll get away from paying for tons of channels we don’t even want. On the other hand, I know that part of the reason I’m even able to do this is because I have fast internet, and a good chunk of the country doesn’t even have the infrastructure to have the option (we need to get on this, I have relatives on dial-up because it’s their only option).
So, have any of you taken the plunge and gotten rid of cable, or the TV altogether? If you haven’t, do you think you ever could? Is HuluPlus worth it if I already use Netflix? Any tips as I embark into this brave new world?
Got rid of cable 5 years ago when I got married. We started it as an experiment and never looked back. Now my days and evenings are so packed with actually doing stuff that I wonder how I ever made time to watch TV.
However, I do grab the occasional episode of this or that on Hulu.
My girlfriend and I got rid of cable over two years ago, and haven’t looked back. I miss SportsCenter a little bit, but for the TV shows that I was going to buy on DVD anyway (such as the latest eps of Doctor Who or Clone Wars), I can own them just the same by buying them off Amazon or iTunes (in HD no less) for about the same price I would have paid for the DVDs, but actually see them within 24 hours of them coming out on cable.
We certainly use the heck out of NetFlix InstantWatch through my Playstation 3, and would probably go crazy if that didn’t exist.
My wife and I are contemplating this very same thing — we’re paying a buttload of ducats for a bunch of channels we rarely use. The stumbling block for me is that I am absolutely addicted to HBO original programming such as Treme and the upcoming Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, and she and our daughter absolutely adores Discovery Channel programming like Dirty Jobs, Life, and various documentary shows.
It’s a toughie — we’re still debating, but I suspect FiOS TV is soon to be a thing of the past in our household.
My wife and I are considering cutting off our cable as well and this post opened our eyes to more options than we had thought of, so thank you! Cable is just way too expensive, and the shows we watch are, of course, only on the premium channels…we’re newlyweds with only one person able to work, that just isn’t an option. So, thanks for the wonderful article!
My wife and I got rid of cable a year ago. We replaced it with 2 mac minis hooked up to our two major TVs. The cost was the same as having cable for a year. We watch most of our shows on Hulu or Netflix. We also moved all our DVDs onto a networked hard drive (HD 1TB drive only $150 or so, will hold about 950 DVDs, copied over with Handbrake). All in all, I think after two years we’ll have saved over $1000 and still managed to watch just about everything we want. Just think of all the gaming stuff you can buy with that!
Anyway, go for it!
I did this back in 2002 when I picked up netflix.
My only regret is every time I call my internet company they have to pitch me their bundle of services. They just do not understand “I don’t watch TV.”
I found when I had a DVR, I was watching shows that weren’t worth the time to watch live. I canceled my cable in 2005 and haven’t looked back. Netflix DVDs, Netflix streaming, free online viewing, and the occasional iTunes season subscription take care of my media needs.
If you’re considering canceling your cable or satellite TV service, you’ll probably quickly find you don’t miss it.
I haven’t even had a physical television set for the past three years, much less cable TV. I found that I didn’t miss it at all. Between Hulu, Netflix and *ahem* bittorrent, I’ve been able to keep up with all the shows that I actually care about.
I don’t have a TV, for a number of reasons. I just never got around to getting one when I left for university, and then found that it would be too much of a pain to store in the summers. I don’t really watch TV anyway, and it’s a habit I’d like to avoid.
The only shows currently airing that I actually follow, I can *ahem* watch for free: Supernatural and the Big Bang Theory. (For what it’s worth, I’m buying DVDs of every Supernatural season aired next month to help support it!)
Proudly staying TV-free!
I’ve been without CABLE for 8 years… I just wait until a series is over and then buy the boxset…currently working on BSG
. With what I would have spent on cable MONTHLY, plus altering my schedule to catch programs, PLUS dealing with commercials, and waiting for cliffhangers (a week, two weeks, three months?!?!)…I think I save money in the long run…build an expressive looking collection…but, with the popularity of TWITTER, I have to be ever aware of potential SPOILER ALERTS…oh, and never watch YouTube music videos based on a series you are only half way through… … 
We have considered canceling our cable a number of times, because it does seem like an easy way to free up some money every month, but we never go through with it. We love TV and aren’t ashamed of it! And the DVR is the best thing since sliced bread if you ask me. We can watch our shows whenever we want and skip over the commercials. We also love football far too much to cancel our TV service.
What we *did* pull the plug on was going to the movies. Mainly because our theater sucks, but also because it’s a huge money suck. Our cable package has lots of movie channels, plus the On Demand movies – many free, others for just a few bucks to rent. We can have a movie night at home and watch two or three movies for the cost of just one ticket at the theater.