I’m getting sick of paying $100+ each month for my Directv. I rarely watch any shows when they are actually on. Most things I watch are on either Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon prime.
Anyone here care to talk about experience doing away with the monthly TV? How do you deal with sports?
I’ve been off cable for 7 or 8 years now. Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Tivo recording HD network TV give me plenty to watch.
The only way I know to deal with sports is SlingTV. Reviews are mixed but from what I’ve heard and read it works ok for viewing. The navigation leaves some to be desired.
How do you get the HD networks? Antenna? I think I live too far in the sticks to get more than two or three with an HD antenna, at least according to this.
There have been several threads in the last year.
Live sports is the big hurdle. Without cable, you’re pretty much screwed. Without a sports fixation, you don’t need cable.
Yes, antenna. I live about 40 miles from the nearest city and can get all the major networks. I use an amplified indoor antenna. It may take some trial and error to get a good one, prepare to return a few of them.
My bundle comes with very minimal, basic cable. 25 channels, many in Spanish (which, alas, I do not know.) PBS is the only networked station I get.
And, anyway, I don’t watch TV! So I “cut the cable” years ago.
Haven’t had cable for at least 15 years. I’ve had Netflix for about 4 years and prior to that it was watching DVDs I owned or renting. I don’t watch sports so that was never an issue. I probably get a dozen channels with the antenna but never watch, just go through different TV series on Netflix.
My wife cancelled the cable TV two or three years ago - she and the girls were already watching a lot of shows on Hulu and Netflix, so not having cable didn’t really make much of a difference. We still have the TV, mostly to be used with the Wii.
They may watch a few Olympic events (mostly figure skating), but other than that none of us care about sports.
And I don’t watch TV, so the change didn’t affect me.
Last year my good TV was stolen, so I dropped cable to save money. I’ve got 2 little old TV’s, a laptop, Netflix, Amazon Prime (for the shipping before they offered TV) & Hulu for “new” stuff. And an antenna–mostly for the news & PBS. And Colbert is returning–to broadcast TV. (Also have some DVD’s & BluRays. Don’t buy them much any more but have some good stuff.)
Comcast offered a deal before the last season of Mad Men so I bit. Then got a good price on a 40 inch TV. But cable would not come on in HD. Comcast’s online & phone help were useless; I found (by myself) the “way” to turn on HD but it did not stick. However, broadcast TV & all the streaming services looked great.
Rather than make a date with the cable guy, I dropped off my box & told them I just wanted the 'net. No problem…
Yes, about 18 months ago. In some ways I miss it. I do enjoy watching certain shows. I get to watch TV at my guy’s place sometimes.
For sports, I think I have a ball around here somewhere.
I just cut mine earlier this year… we never watched it (opting for Netflix) and with 100 a month going toward it, we don’t really miss it.
I’m in the same boat, and about to cut cable. There’s isn’t anything on that I watch really except for the odd show here and there, but when I do watch I find the frequency of commercials really annoying. I timed it once it was every 10 minutes, and drove me crazy.
I’ve been off it for two years now. Honestly don’t miss it one but except for the occasional sports event I’d like to watch but I can always go to the bar if I really want to see it that bad.
I would drop it in a minute if I could get NFL and redzone. Nobody in this house can sit and watch one game, all the way through, live anymore, so we spend $100/month on the top level cable.
Any suggestions?
I got rid of television almost three years ago. I don’t miss it.
I got rid of cable around 2005 or 2006 I think. I can’t stand sports so it didn’t matter as far as that goes. Though I do watch Olympics stuff. For that I get HD OTA just fine, plus all the internet stuff. I like to watch live local news OTA while getting ready for work, but that’s pretty much it. If I’m home during prime time I might watch something like SYTYCD if it’s live, but that’s rare. Sunday night award shows are fun live, but again I have an antenna so it’s no big deal. The rest, like regular series stuff, I watch all online.
I truly don’t miss cable at all, haven’t had it in years. I use Apple TV and honestly it’s one of the coolest things ever. When I’ve been at a friend 's house and commercials are on tv I can’t imagine anything worse than sitting through them and every year commercials I happen to see are just the dumbest things they try to pass off as funny.
With broadband internet, there really isn’t a need for paying for cable TV anymore. You don’t miss what you don’t watch. You could put up na HD antenna, but reception greatly depends on your location. As for sports, I never watched sports and didn’t like the idea of paying the cable company to carry sports channels I never watched. Netflix has so much stuff to stream and it’s commercial-free.
Cut cable years ago. Nice monthly savings with Internet only plus Hulu.
I use a digital antenna for NFL watching. Reception in my area is pretty good.
I don’t get the ESPN or NFL Network games, but I don’t care. If my team is playing one of those, I go to a bar.