Life without tv... can you stop paying for cable or satellite?

Will · 12-23-2007, 05:54 PM

I just realized something today. I don't need my cable TV!

The few shows I watch such as Heroes, the Office, and Friday Night Lights are all available for legal, free download on NBC.com. By surfing Digg and reddit I can also catch up on the best tidbits of CNN, Daily Show, and the Colbert report.

Have any of you checked your tv watching habits lately? Can you get your TV some other way (nbc.com, itunes, etc) and stop paying for cable?

pomdarryl · 12-23-2007, 06:33 PM

I've stopped watching tv a long time ago. Yes, I am in fact one of those snooty people who say "oh I don't watch any TV" at pretentious cocktail parties. For what it's worth, I don't splurge money on books either. I just have all-day sessions at Borders and the local library.

frozemud · 12-25-2007, 07:33 AM

We cut the cable about 2 years ago, intending to watch free local broadcast TV only. But it turns out that we don't miss cable and we don't need any TV at all. We sold our extra TV and use the TV we kept for very occasional movie rentals. News we get from the internet.
We noticed that we don't desire as much "stuff" now. Cars, gadgets, fancy clothes, fast food, CDs, DVDs--it all just passes us by. We don't need it, we don't buy it, and we are more than happy with that situation. And more than happy about our bank account.

lazy23 · 12-26-2007, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frozemud

We noticed that we don't desire as much "stuff" now. Cars, gadgets, fancy clothes, fast food, CDs, DVDs--it all just passes us by. We don't need it, we don't buy it, and we are more than happy with that situation. And more than happy about our bank account.

That's a really interesting point. I wonder if you desire less stuff because you're watching less commercials?

I rely mostly on Tivo and DVDs, so I haven't watched a lot of commercials for a while. Maybe I'm getting less brainwashed?

frozemud · 12-26-2007, 01:15 PM

That's a really interesting point. I wonder if you desire less stuff because you're watching less commercials?

I rely mostly on Tivo and DVDs, so I haven't watched a lot of commercials for a while. Maybe I'm getting less brainwashed?

Maybe you are less brainwashed. Do you feel different, especially when you go to a store? It's kind of weird, after all these years of shopping and wanting more, more, more, to go into a store and say "meh, who buys this stuff?".

I think cutting out the stream of commercials does a lot to change the way you think about acquiring/buying. But even TV shows have very subtle product placement within storylines. The characters get into sleek shiny cars, wear the latest styles, have perfect unfrizzy hair. It makes you want to be perfect, like them. We try buying things that are similar and it never seems to work. We're not perfect. They are not perfect either without a team to help them get it right.

Anyway, I might catch a show at a friend's house, in the breakroom at work, etc., but I don't foresee ever going back to paying for TV in any form.

katlady · 12-26-2007, 02:45 PM

You guys might be seeing less obvious commercials, but don't they do a lot of subliminal product placements in shows?

Every time after I watched the Office I feel like I need to get a new Razr or Sebring.

lucille · 12-27-2007, 04:57 AM

We have been debating at least downgrading our subscription. The cable company has conveniently put all of the very in demand channels in the digital package and basic has very few that we watch. If one of the dish providers started doing totally ala carte channels we would jump ship in a minute at least for our TV.

pingem · 12-28-2007, 02:07 AM

Oh oh oh oh.... BRAINSTORM COMING. Bear with me folks, I don't get these that often.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frozemud

[i]
Anyway, I might catch a show at a friend's house, in the breakroom at work, etc., but I don't foresee ever going back to paying for TV in any form.

+

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucille

If one of the dish providers started doing totally ala carte channels we would jump ship in a minute at least for our TV.

Lucille, if some of your favorite shows fall on the same nights, perhaps you can have show nights where you watch the show at a friend's place.

You can do a pot luck, bring some wine, it'll be a hoot!

lucille · 12-28-2007, 05:52 AM

Last night we went through the price hike sheet our cable provider mailed out. Yes, they are raising rates, again.

Individual services and your core services are extremely high compared to all the extras you might add on. IE: basic cable is rather high, but you can do a package to add a bunch more channels for only a little more money. Same with basic broadband. It seems like they do this to prevent people from going to the basic cable option for something fairly cheap. You have to dump quite a bit of cash in order to get just basic cable and broadband internet so there really isn't a significant money savings in stripping down your service. The competitor in town started doing this in the last year also.

By ditching our phone out of our package we would have saved $1.
By ditching all of our movie channels $30
By dropping all the decent channels $15

But we could end up spending easily that much in gas, rental and purchase of movies or going out instead of staying home.

Two things could drastically change the situation, cable goes ala carte or bigger cable channels start putting their entire on-demand available on line.

ayjones71 · 12-28-2007, 12:26 PM

I'd miss HGTV, the Food Network, A&E and MSNBC. Of course, ESPN has my husband by the throat. I like it, too. We did go down to the most basic package that would allow us more bang for our buck. Since we pay for it, we DVR a lot of shows and plan date hours to watch the show together. The only commercials that really get to me are the ones for Sonic b/c it is 50 miles away.

12-23-2007, 05:54 PM	#1
Will Administrator Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 339 Reputation: (19)	Life without tv... can you stop paying for cable or satellite? I just realized something today. I don't need my cable TV! The few shows I watch such as Heroes, the Office, and Friday Night Lights are all available for legal, free download on NBC.com. By surfing Digg and reddit I can also catch up on the best tidbits of CNN, Daily Show, and the Colbert report. Have any of you checked your tv watching habits lately? Can you get your TV some other way (nbc.com, itunes, etc) and stop paying for cable?

12-28-2007, 12:26 PM	#10
ayjones71 Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1 Reputation: (10)	I wish I could I'd miss HGTV, the Food Network, A&E and MSNBC. Of course, ESPN has my husband by the throat. I like it, too. We did go down to the most basic package that would allow us more bang for our buck. Since we pay for it, we DVR a lot of shows and plan date hours to watch the show together. The only commercials that really get to me are the ones for Sonic b/c it is 50 miles away.

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12-23-2007, 06:33 PM	#2
pomdarryl Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 5 Reputation: (10)	I've stopped watching tv a long time ago. Yes, I am in fact one of those snooty people who say "oh I don't watch any TV" at pretentious cocktail parties. For what it's worth, I don't splurge money on books either. I just have all-day sessions at Borders and the local library.

12-25-2007, 07:33 AM	#3
frozemud Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 50 Reputation: (10)	We cut the cable about 2 years ago, intending to watch free local broadcast TV only. But it turns out that we don't miss cable and we don't need any TV at all. We sold our extra TV and use the TV we kept for very occasional movie rentals. News we get from the internet. We noticed that we don't desire as much "stuff" now. Cars, gadgets, fancy clothes, fast food, CDs, DVDs--it all just passes us by. We don't need it, we don't buy it, and we are more than happy with that situation. And more than happy about our bank account.

12-26-2007, 01:15 PM	#5
frozemud Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 50 Reputation: (10)	That's a really interesting point. I wonder if you desire less stuff because you're watching less commercials? I rely mostly on Tivo and DVDs, so I haven't watched a lot of commercials for a while. Maybe I'm getting less brainwashed? Maybe you are less brainwashed. Do you feel different, especially when you go to a store? It's kind of weird, after all these years of shopping and wanting more, more, more, to go into a store and say "meh, who buys this stuff?". I think cutting out the stream of commercials does a lot to change the way you think about acquiring/buying. But even TV shows have very subtle product placement within storylines. The characters get into sleek shiny cars, wear the latest styles, have perfect unfrizzy hair. It makes you want to be perfect, like them. We try buying things that are similar and it never seems to work. We're not perfect. They are not perfect either without a team to help them get it right. Anyway, I might catch a show at a friend's house, in the breakroom at work, etc., but I don't foresee ever going back to paying for TV in any form.

12-26-2007, 02:45 PM	#6
katlady Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 30 Reputation: (11)	You guys might be seeing less obvious commercials, but don't they do a lot of subliminal product placements in shows? Every time after I watched the Office I feel like I need to get a new Razr or Sebring.

12-27-2007, 04:57 AM	#7
lucille Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 421 Reputation: (26)	We have been debating at least downgrading our subscription. The cable company has conveniently put all of the very in demand channels in the digital package and basic has very few that we watch. If one of the dish providers started doing totally ala carte channels we would jump ship in a minute at least for our TV.

12-28-2007, 05:52 AM	#9
lucille Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 421 Reputation: (26)	Last night we went through the price hike sheet our cable provider mailed out. Yes, they are raising rates, again. Individual services and your core services are extremely high compared to all the extras you might add on. IE: basic cable is rather high, but you can do a package to add a bunch more channels for only a little more money. Same with basic broadband. It seems like they do this to prevent people from going to the basic cable option for something fairly cheap. You have to dump quite a bit of cash in order to get just basic cable and broadband internet so there really isn't a significant money savings in stripping down your service. The competitor in town started doing this in the last year also. By ditching our phone out of our package we would have saved $1. By ditching all of our movie channels $30 By dropping all the decent channels $15 But we could end up spending easily that much in gas, rental and purchase of movies or going out instead of staying home. Two things could drastically change the situation, cable goes ala carte or bigger cable channels start putting their entire on-demand available on line.