Posted on 04/22/2016 7:57:49 AM PDT by DrJeff
Cancelled DishTV today. I have "cut the cord" on and off for many years, and it's time again. I was paying $60/month on a discount plan and it went up to $120 for the same programming. I'm just not getting that kind of benefit from the cable channels. On a personal level, I don't see the value.
A recent article found that more than 1,000,000 [US] consumers cancelled paid TV subscriptions in 2015, according to SNL Kagan, a division of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Last year's decline was four times greater than the losses of 2014, and it represents the third consecutive overall annual drop for the industry, SNL Kagan says.
In Canada, it's similar: According to the Convergence Consulting Group, 190,000 Canadians ended their ties with traditional TV in 2015. That's an 80 per cent increase from the previous year when 105,000 people cut the cord.
According to his numbers, only 13,000 Canadians cut the cord in 2013, while in 2012 there was actually a gain of 32,000 TV subscribers.
Most expect the big drop in 2015 to be "the new normal."
Amen to that brother!
Have been outside-TV free for about 10 years. I do not miss it. I find I have more time and more gets done. Keeps all that filth out of the house. No more All-Gay, All the Time.
I have my internet through my cable, how do you get internet?
DrJeff, I suspect that the reason you have been an on and off cord cutter is that you have not carefully considered what you value in your premium provider and how much of that you can replicate without their help.
- Analyze your needs and options
- Consider broadcast
- Think about set top boxes
- Try streaming
- Make your television better than cable
Record your viewing habits. Put a pencil and paper in all the places where you watch television and note time, channel, live/vs ondemand, whether you paused or rewound or fast forwarded, and how important the experience was. Maybe watching the Game of Thrones live was very important to you so you could talk about it at work. Maybe falling asleep in front of the Mary Tyler Moore show as less important.
If you notes are full of sporting events, you are probably not going to enjoy life after Dish.
Check out TVFool.com and TitanTV.com to see if you are able to receive broadcast television programming that interests you. Broadcast is free and does not use up your data cap. Be sure to look up each station in Wikipedia to see what sub-channels they carry.
If you find yourself rewinding or fast forwarding or time shifting or miss your program guide, look into a set top or whole house DVR. I did not realized how much more my family used a DVR for before we left Comcast. Now we have a DVR on every television.
If you need unedited, premium, commercial free programming, streaming services may help. Hulu, Amazon Instant, VuDu, Netflix provide great on demand options while Sling TV and Vue offer linear or traditional alternatives. Just remember that you must have reliable, uncapped, unthrottled high speed internet to enjoy streaming services and that costs money on top of the cost of the service itself.
Though you have already started your journey, I would humbly suggest you visit https://freetvforme.wordpress.com where I have documented my adventure.
Have fun!
PS Spend your savings on a good antenna (or two) and a great set top DVR (or four). You won’t miss Dish at all!
I dropped Dish years ago and went with Hulu and Netflix, I am also receiving local broadcast via antenna for the few times I want to watch. I have rarely missed Dish and saved considerable cash.
I splurged...Roku..Amazon Prime...Netflix. Free channels like YouTube...NASA...One America News..etc.
It began for me while I was taking care of my elderly parents who have since passed. My Mom was hard of hearing (as am I) and so had to have the TV up so bloody loud I couldn’t stand to be in the same room. They had the most basic of cable selections anyway, so for me, there was Discovery, History, a few others. Then the History channel went onto premium status which pretty much cut my interest in half. Gradually I just tapered off my viewing more and more until it was zero. I have zero interest in watching sports, it just does completely nothing for me. I’m not saying I am engaged in Nobel-prize grade research or anything like that. I just don’t like the compulsion to listen to noise and watch stuff that other people have figured out is so interesting to me, because it ain’t.
Now, when I watch TV it has a kind of “rattly” aspect to those few remaining brain cells I have left. It’s buzz, it’s brain activity for the sake of brain activity. It’s like a bug crawling on my arm. I can’t watch it for long even if I am at friend’s houses.
Not even talking about the appalling content, ALL of which you could get with a $10/mo sub to Netflix if it was so darn important.
I have internet through Bright House. Cancelled the home phone and T.V. Cable portion. $57.00 for Internet only.
I’ve been totally cable free for many years. pay $60 per month for an internet connection with ridiculously high bandwith.
I don’t get to see the scheduled broadcast of some shows, but I do get to eventually stream them all.
You just have to time shift mind and be content that the most current shows you won’t see for two weeks.
Amazon has Starz and Showtime subscriptions. I wanted to watch Billions, so I waited until the series finale, signed up for 7 day trial and binge watched it over the week, then cancelled. I’ll do the same with Showtimes Outlander series and Game of Thrones.
Yep, same here. Netflix, Amazon and broadcast antenna for the occasional sports and local news. Fiber optic internet. All for less cost than basic cable/dish, and I choose what to watch and when, and I have a pause button.
Then buy ammo.
A couple of my kids insisted on giving me Amazon Fire and Netflix,which they pay for.
I was quite annoyed and told them I didn’t want it.
My son installed it-—me complaining in the background.
The best thing EVER. I rarely watch regular TV anymore.
In this case mother did not know best. :-)
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I had that return-to-content problem with Crackle as well, even with plenty of bandwidth to spare.
I was not using dish enough to justify - not great quality for the price.
I get all the TV and radio I need from YouTube.
The least-used channel of communication on my smartphone is the phone line. I could easily get along using Skype for all the phone calls. With Wi-Fi at home and free Wi-Fi everywhere else, I wouldn’t miss the “phone” function at all.
I have Netflix and ClassicFlix. ClassicFlix has thousands of movies Netflix doesn’t.
I get Alex Jones, Savage, Stefan Molyneux, and Trump rallies on YouTube. I no longer listen to Levin, Rush, Steve Deace, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan, and anyone connected with National Review.
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I hate having to pay for all the Spanish programs and sports programs I never watch.
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