We currently do not have cable (or satellite) TV. Everything we get comes through our rooftop antenna. Ms. D has been making a semi-serious push to get cable “for the family” for x-mas. I’m mounting a pretty sturdy defense. Was interested in what you all thought about this.
I have 2 main reasons to not want cable. Primarily, I foresee it resulting in me and my family watching way more TV than we currently do. Which I do not see terribly desiresable. I know there are some good shows on cable, but I really don’t need more excuses to plop my arse on the sofa and stare at the tube. Living near Chicago we get several networks and a couple of public stations which broadcast late into the night. So I’m able to find enough to satisfy my TV needs. Today, for example, I like the fact that there is nothing on that I want to watch on Wednesdays, and am looking forward to the prospect of reading this evening. Whereas I know if I had cable I could spend an hour or more with that clicker in my hand cruising through old sitcoms and the like.
Secondly, I’m a cheap ass bastard and I’d just as soon not pay several hundred $ a year for TV. How much do you pay per month? I’d rather spend that several hundred on just about anything other than watching TV.
So - what do you think? Am I fighting last century’s battle and denying my family the opportunity to fully participate in modern culture?
Okay, that’s easy for me to say. I don’t have cable for the same exact reasons you don’t have it. I watch too much TV as it is, and I only have 3 channels (two of which are fuzzy). Sure I’d love to have the History Channel, A&E, Discovery… dammit, I want cable. But I won’t cave. I just can’t. If you get cable, what will be next? DVR? You’ll be glued to that TV. I know I would be. Don’t do it man. You can rent a lot of shows on DVD through Netflix. This is what I do. I get my reality tv, House, Greys Anatomy, etc… in concentrated doses.
Here is a test to use: Browse through Cafe Society and look at all the threads about TV shows and count how many you can’t watch because you don’t have cable but would want to see.
I have DirecTV, pay ~$50-60/month, and still don’t watch that much TV. However, all the shows that I do watch (BSG, Heroes, cooking, Discovery) I enjoy and find interesting – I have enough willpower to go do something else if I don’t find the TV worth my time.
So, if you’re a helpless blob without willpower, or if you’re looking at a cable plan that includes goons hooking you up like you’re in A Clockwork Orange and forcing you to watch, then don’t get cable.
If you can think of some programs of interest to your family, try it out for a month. You can always cancel it, and your family probably won’t be any more annoyed at you than they are now.
A couple of years ago we rented the Sopranos DVDs. Good show. Worked through all the seasons.
And I keep seeing 6 Feet Under - heard good things about it, but never get around to picking it up.
And I watch very little sports other than the occasional golf tourney.
I see cable once in a while in hotels when I’m on a business trip. Usually I can spend a good couple of hours flicking thru the channels, but far too often I find myself mesmerized by some train wreck like Dog Bounty Hunter or Danny Bonaduce’s Psychologist. And tho the history channel always starts good, those commercials start to come fast and furious during the 2d half. Which I gues is why I need to spend more and get Tivo …
Had cable back in the 80s when I was in central Illinois with 3 broadcast channels that signed off at 10:30. And had a couple of trial periods since then. I guess I’m pretty comfortable thinking I do not want it. But am I being unreasonable in denying my family it?
My one daughter in particular I think has a high degree of couch potato tendency. She is perfectly content spending a couple of hours clicking between reruns of Friends, That 70s Show, Malcolm and the Simpsons. I think she would find the broader range of crap on cable tremendously hard to resist.
I say don’t do it. Maybe I just have very weak willpower, but I just can’t resist watching way more TV when I have cable. And it’s easy to justify it because I do, at least try to watch good shows: “Well, I should really watch this History Channel documentary because it’s educational…oh and look, there’s a great classic movie on TCM after that…” And before you know it, it sucks up all your time.
Get Netflix and just rent the TV shows you want to watch. Make that the big Christmas present to your family.
Don’t do it. It’s basically the same thing as network TV. The variety aspect is almost non-existent, unless you consider reality shows about teenagers and reality shows about 20-30 somethings variety. Check out this threadabout how bland cable is and you’ll understand.
IMO you could do much better getting a subscription to Netflix ‘for the family,’ and have some control over what you watch.
I pay $40 a month, but that’s mostly because we get one channel otherwise. It might not be so bad if I cut it, really. I was seriously considering it a few months back.
My kid works at the local library, which means he can take home vids for free with no due dates. So we always have a stack of movies to choose from over the weekend!
I think my low point re: cable was when I was watching a reality show about contestants who were pitching their ideas for reality shows…
But then my wife says she wants to watch The Daily Show. I’ve seen tapes. Some funny stuff. But I’d rather my family spend $600 more on clothing, or ice cream, etc.
I told my wife I’d rather she hire a cleaning service than get cable. Hell, we could afford both if we wanted to, but something just rubs me the wrong way about both. Like I said - I’m just a cheapass bastard at heart.
I cancelled my cable about 2 years ago, since I wasn’t watching anything except Turner Classic Movies, and couldn’t justify spending $50 a month to watch old movies.
Since then, I rent my old movies (and new movies, and TV shows) from Netflix, and buy the ones I really like. I don’t watch network TV, and I don’t miss having cable… except for TCM.
I have cable, the cheapest plan offered in my area(thank God there’s no box). It’s not digital or HD or anything. The cable connects directly from the wall to my tv. I also have a Tivo that I got a few years ago when they were still offering lifetime subscriptions. When the Tivo dies, I’ll probably cancel the cable and just go to DVD’s. I can’t stand commercials. I doubt I watch more than an hour of live tv at my house.
-Lil
I’m happy to see that so many Dopers don’t have cable, and here’s another vote to resist the temptation: we’ve been without cable for more than 3 years, and I don’t think our lives are any less fullfilling for it.
I’m the one person in a very small office that doesn’t have cable; when people ask how I live without it, I ask them what they could have done with the thousands of dollars (at least $2k) that I haven’t paid the cable company in the last three years.
Rodgers01 makes a great point: the fact that a program is on The History Channel or A&E or whatever doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worth your time to watch it.
This weekend, a friend of mine (with 3 gazillion cable channels) said he watches “only 10-12 hours of television a week, not including movies.” That’s at least an hour and a half a night.
Spend the time doing stuff with your family, or reading, or being outside, instead.
Rarely around to watch things on TV at the proper time
Almost anything I’d like to watch is available after the season is over on Netflix. I generally like the 1 hour drama-combination series…Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire etc.
There is so much stuff available on Netflix I can easily wait till the season is over for a particular show. I just avoid the Cafe Society threads and shield my eyes when I’m on Television without Pity
So I cancelled cable and got the most expensive Netflix (which is still cheaper than cable). I don’t really rent movies off of it-just TV series.
I wasn’t allowed to watch more than a 1/2 hour of TV per week growing up and never had cable before this year, so I’m not all that attached to it but it has saved me a lot of money. About the only thing I miss is just zoning out to HGTV but my zone out time has now been transferred to reading.
Unless I’m mistaken, if you want to watch The Daily Show (and The Colbert Report), you can just download iTunes and watch it on your computer (I think it costs about $0.99 an episode).
Actually, I found I watched less TV overall after I got my Tivo. Before I got the Tivo, I would watch TV for two reasons: if there was something specific I wanted to watch, or if I felt like watching TV. Now, I Tivo the specific things I want to watch, and watch them when I want to watch TV.
I very seldom watch anything on network TV- most of what I watch comes from the Discovery or History channels, or public TV. I do think at least some of the cable channels do offer better shows than network channels.
Though, if I had to choose between a cleaning service and cable TV, it would be a wrench, but the cable TV would go. I hate housecleaning, and I suck at it.
I haven’t tried Netflix, but I’m pretty sure I would prefer my Tivo to it. With Tivo, you never have to send back any DVDs (and that’s the sort of thing that I’m terrible about doing), and you don’t have DVDs that you haven’t gotten around to sending back piling up somewhere.
I hate watching video on my computer screen, and don’t understand why anyone would rather do that than watch it on the TV, if they had a choice.
There is zero reception at my house, so I have to get cable to have any TV. That said, I have the deluxe boffo cable and I love it. I also admit that I watch a lot of TV while I grade papers, surf the Dope, answer e-mail, setting my FantasyTV line up , etc. Probably comes from 10 years of living alone, wanting that human voice in the background.
What do I watch? Many of the HBO dramas, stand up shows, and at least 2-3 movies a month. FoodTV. Couple of Comedy Central shows, esp. Daily Show and Colbert Report. Usually I have 3-4 network shows going. So yeah, lots of TV. I spend too much money on it.
I’m not ashamed and I’m not going to join the chorus of TV bashing, which is a big yawn. Get cable if there are shows that you want to watch that you feel you’re missing. It’s one of the better times to be a TV watcher, I have to say. Lots of fun stuff out there.
I didn’t subscribe to cable when I moved last year. I realized that for the past 5 years or so, my dad had usurped the TV and I hadn’t actually seen any shows I’d actually wanted to watch in a long time. Plus, I am both poor AND cheap.
When I moved in there was a dish on my roof. Everyone freaked out when I took it down. “What if you want TV?!?!?!”
Netflix is the shit. All the TV and movies you could ever want, and no commercials.
Also, I can watch all of my favorite “watercooler” shows (Lost, House, Ugly Betty, etc) on broadcast. Easy peasy.
, etc. Probably comes from 10 years of living alone, wanting that human voice in the background.