1999 was my last tv bill
Posted on 04/20/2010 4:52:54 PM PDT by CanadianPete
Make no mistake: The big cable, satellite, and telco carriers are still sitting pretty with more than 100 million TV subscribers. Nevertheless, a new report claims that more and more viewers are "cutting the cord" in favor of watching their favorite shows via over-the-air antennas (remember those?), Netflix, or the Web.
[snip]
To wit: Nearly 800,000 households in the U.S. have "cut the cord," dumping their cable, satellite, or telco TV providers (such as AT&T U-verse or Verizon FiOS) and turning instead to Web-based videos (like Hulu), downloadable shows (iTunes), by-mail subscription services (Netflix), or even good ol' over-the-air antennas for their favorite shows, according to the report.
[snip]
Personally, I find the temptation to cut the cord pretty enticing, especially whenever I get a load of my monthly $130 cable bill (which includes unlimited broadband and HD but no premium channels). Why am I paying so much for all the hundreds of channels that I rarely ever watch, anyway? Wouldn't it be easier — not to mention a lot cheaper — just to ditch my DVR and watch my favorite shows on iTunes and Hulu, catch up on the news via CNN.com, and be done with it?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hmm. I gave up our basic barebones $12 cable after AlGore conceded. I haven’t missed it but for the World Series and Superbowl games. I missed my Cardinals winning it all. Listened to WS ballgames on a tiny AM radio that sounded like hell.
Would not go back though.
I dropped TV in 1995.
Too busy and the offerings on the 4,000 channels are garbage.
I came to the conclusion that spending a couple hundred bucks on a computer system that can replicate my satellite system with a TIVO would be a one-time cost instead of almost $100/ month for standard service + TIVO.
In addition to this, my house is surrounded by very large trees and the cable monopoly is a joke when it comes to service and price. In the next year or two, the trees will overshadow my dish and I will not have much choice.
I have the systems and I have the technical ability.
All I need to do now is get my family (Spelled W-I-F-E) comfortable with it and at ease with the use thereof.
This is harder than the technical part!
I don’t really blame her though. There will be an adjustment period as the favorite shows are found and bookmarked. I want to make sure there is enough content that I can completely abandon the main-stream media in favor of the new media online.
I think this is going to be the future as the dinosaur media breaths it’s last breath and finally goes completely digital.
When the process is complete and the broadcasts are all WiMax and WiFi, there needs to be a search engine that does for online content what Yahoo did for searching. YouTube is a good destination but there needs to be a better central site for content.
If anybody has any other links, I would live to see them.
I don’t mind paying a little bit for a service like NetFlix that has more than movies. I think there is a real market for this.
If I can get my phone over my Internet, surely I can get my TV there too!
Once you get your report if you get a decent enough number of channels that makes it worth it for you to consider doing then the next step is do you want to pay someone to do it for you or are you willing sweat a little and learn a bit and do it yourself. You would be surprised what you might be able to do yourself. You don’t have to pay someone big bucks. You don’t necessarily need to put up a big honkin tower with a huge antenna on it. An attic install can be a viable starting point for the do-it-yourselfer.
The hardest part would be getting the cable from the attic to where you could distribute it. Also, you can get away with not grounding the antenna since it’s in your house.
I will add some more in a later post.
1999 was my last tv bill
Yep, I cancelled my direct TV last year after troubles with them and the high bill for just a few channels that I actually watched. I do Netflix, hulu and couple other web sites. Don’t miss it at all.
Interesting grip.
Just curious about what you do with the satellite dish after you cancel the service? Thanks for any feedback.
Last week we received a disk from Netflix which allows us to stream movies and other programs on the Wii gaming console. We were shocked at how many documentaries, movies, childrens programs, TV series, etc., were streamable - thousands and thousands at least. Years and years of TV series are available, all commercial-free.
Our Netflix subscription is for $8.99 a month, which allows us one physical disk at a time and an unlimited number of streamed programs per month.
My husband has decided to turn one of the computers into an XBMC (XBox Media Center). We don't have an XBox, but it isn't required. XBMX runs on all computer platforms. It will allow the computer to act as a media center. It plays videos, shoutcast feeds, Hulu, podcasts, gives the weather, plays music, streamable media. etc. It can also do RSS & browse the internet.
Between the XBMC, the Netflix/Wii thing, getting news from the computer, and the fact that our local library system has a massive (free) DVD collection, the dish is on the way out.
This will save us almost $90.00 a month. He only watches a few shows, and the only thing I'll miss are the new episodes of Doctor Who. My husband said that since we'll no longer be spending nearly $1,100.00 a year on the dish, we could purchase of DVD to get the few shows we'd miss if we'd like.
I have to have internet. Part of my work. The charge for cable with all channels on top of it is about $80 for the full package with HD and all movie channels. Honestly, it’s not such a bad value. We watch our movies at home and my wife gets her Spanish soap opras.
I wonder how many of them “cut the cord” because the Great Obama Recover has rendered them unable to afford to keep it?
Well, I kept it. I will eventually take it down from the roof, but so far it is still there.
Even the "entertainment" shows have liberal bias. It's hard to pay for a service that constantly slaps you in the face... Might be time to dump the mess.
When all your research is done, you might want to do a stand alone post for the rest of us. You’ve got some good stuff there...
How do you play a Bass? Do you strum it’s gills?
“You’ve got to get yourself another life, guy.”
Just a bit of sarcasm, sorry it didn’t come thru.
>>How do you play a Bass? Do you strum it’s gills?<<
I finger the gills. Some guys use a pick but they hate that. The live ones do anyway.
Reference bump! ;-)
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