This January, I am going to try to live without cable.
I'm not really an idle TV watcher. That is, I don't really flip through channels until I find something to watch. I have a few shows that I absolutely adore (Lost, anyone?) and those I record with the DVR unit my cable company provides and watch at my leisure.
A couple of months back, I realized my cable bill was shockingly high. A promotional deal I had with company had ended, so I called the customer service line. I canceled the premium channels and the helpful agent found other ways to reduce my bill; she put me on another promotional rate and even removed an additional monthly charge (if you haven't tried doing this, you really should. Most cable companies will find ways to reduce your bill to keep you as a customer). But even then, my monthly cable bill is just under $100, $40 of which is my Internet access.
Do I really need to pay for cable TV? I know lots of people who don't have cable television any more. They download their favorite shows from Amazon or iTunes or watch them for free on the channel's web site or wait until it comes out on DVD and get it from Netflix.
With so many other ways to get these shows, I decided to try out alternate viewing options for quality and ease of use. Granted, I don't have a swanky home theatre set-up. I have an XBox 360, an aging Toshiba Satellite lappy, an older Magnavox TV (24" or so, one of those heavy tube monsters) and of course, a cable modem with a wireless network. If I can get a decent picture and viewing experience with this, then the experiment will be a resounding success!
Cool^^ I hope that works out for you- I may have to mention it to my adults, see if we can cut down, at least, the bill for things we don't use.
ReplyDeleteCool! We got rid of our land-line phone about 5 years ago and our cable TV about 6 months ago. The TV was sitting, unplugged in our bedroom for several months. The only reason we plugged it back in was so Ananda could play some old PS 2 games.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't missed it and I feel like I don't waste as much time watching stuff when I could be doing something more creative.