One of the current fixations in the group mind of the Help Desk is cutting the cable from the cable company. Certainly among Hulu, streaming on ABC.com, BitTorrent (yeah, yeah), Netflix, and iTunes there is enough video entertainment to fill the 4 or 5 hours a night between getting home and going to bed.
If we got rid of cable (keeping 5MB internet) a bumped up to 4 movies at Netflix (currently on 2 at a time), we would save around $82 per month or $984 per year. Most shows I watch can be found streaming or on iTunes for download.
(well, most shows I like are made in the UK anyway)
Quick comments survey: Do you have cable? Are you getting your money’s worth? Do you just watch TV online?
I’ll add, I hook up the Macbook to the TV to watch the streaming so it is not like we would watch it all on a computer screen. Ideally, we would buy a living room computer if we decided to go with this plan.
You’ve heard me rant about my hatred of cable companies before, so I’ll try to keep it brief.
(And as an aside, right now I’m not watching any streaming TV online or downloading from iTunes until the writer’s strike is over. But after they get a fair deal, it’s sooooooooo on.)
I have cable. No, I’m probably not getting anywhere near my money’s worth, by the time I pay for regular cable & then the $15 a month for the HD-dvr & now another $13 a month for Showtime so we can watch the L Word. I try not to think about it…
In a perfect world, I would love to scrap it in favor of an AppleTV/iTunes combo that had HD tv shows & Netflix. Because honestly, I really only watch the major networks, other than some HGTV on the weekends. I’d probably buy a cheap antenna for my upstairs regular TV so that I can watch the Today show, & call it a day. But I am addicted to the pretty, pretty HD picture & the ability to watch it when I want w/o commercials.
But if you end up going w/ the living room computer thing, I would love to see what the picture looked like & how good the sound was. Maybe that would help me get over my fears.
ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, Noggin, Sprout, HGTV, VH1 Classic … yeah, we’re keeping cable.
We don’t pay for HBO or Showtime, though.
I’m pretty sure you already know this, but for the past ten years or so we have just paid $15/month for basic cable. Most of the time we wind up getting more channels than we’re supposed to, but even if we don’t, most of the shows we watch are on the major networks anyway. Anything else we just download or wait for dvd.
Oh, and with an HD antenna you can even watch your shows in HD! 🙂
I can’t seem to get Charter to sell me really basic analog cable. I might try again soon. If I thought for a second that I could pick up Atlanta HD in Athens, I would be at Lowe’s buying an antenna.