I would happily cancel my cable service
Andy just posted over on his blog about The Death of Television and I gotta tell you…. I think I am on board. The title is just a little misleading because what Andy is talking about is the proliferation of people canceling their TV service. My family recently tried upgrading to Comcast Digital Cable and it was a disaster. We have been a Tivo household for several years now, we actually have 3 in the house. And in our downstairs we have a nice HD TV that is really only used for gaming because we don’t have any High Def TV service. Well not none per-se but until recently we didn’t have a HD tivo down there so it wasn’t worth watching 
But we had a very hard time getting Comcasts services working with our Tivo units and the TV signal was not what I would consider and upgrade. So we kicked it to the curb. Back to standard cable.
I don’t watch much TV, I catch Lost sometimes and I really like How I met your mother. But if I miss a show, I wont skip a beat. I like Tivo because I can watch TV whenever I get around to it. I love the interface and i think its a great device. I don’t watch anything on extended cable. I am perfectly fine with the bunny ears I have hooked up to my HD Tivo downstairs, local content is plenty for me. (and FREE!)
My wife and daughter however are a different story. My wife likes lots of TLC network shows. She watches John and Kate plus 8, and she watches What not to wear and Trading Spaces. Ana watches Blues Clues and I have no idea what channel its on. But see the cable service is for them.
Andy got me thinking though. What if I could get those online through some service. I could buy the episodes and have them for our own to watch whenever. I checked iTunes and they have several seasons of Blues Clues as well as other great shows. $30 dollars a season means I kill cable and buy her more TV then we would let her watch in a year. I could even pick up an Apple TV and keep our normal viewing habits.
So now I am thinking if I can just find my wifes programming (or steal my neighbors cable) we could actually get rid of our cable service. All of a sudden that stupid Apple TV device doesnt seem so silly anymore. I think this is gonna take some more thinking. What are your thoughts?
18 Mar 2008 Simeon
For shows, that’s fine, if you can find them, but do you watch sporting events at all? If you do, then you really need some form of TV service, whether it’s cable or Satellite, and to be honest, HD at that.
I just moved from cable to satellite TV because cable was just getting too expensive. Very happy with satellite so far (kids are VERY happy)!
But I can see in a few years ditching that too and just moving online. Most of my wifes shows are available online. As you said a lot of kids shows are available on iTunes. And there are always torrents available for stuff you can’t find legally.
FWIW - there is a very good interview on NPR’s The Story about a guy and his family who gave up TV for 20 years - very interesting to hear the pros and cons of life without TV: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_417_Life_Unplugged.mp3/view
As an early adopter of Apple TV, trust me it’s not silly, even less so with the 2.0 version. I’ve been thinking the same thing since I never watch cable, and with the one show on HBO that I do like (In Treatment) being made available for free through Amazon Unbox, regular old TV is dying fast IMO. I love my Apple TV and with good rabbit ears for HD local channel content, I’d probably be perfectly happy. $160/mo for what I get from Comcast (granted, that includes phone and internet) is just too much for how little I use it.
The only sporting I watch is MLS and World Cup, and world cup made ABC last year. So i can hit a sports bar for those I suppose.
Yeah, again my only issue with satellite is getting it to work with my Tivo. My wife would never forgive me if I hurt Tivo.
Matt I think you are onto something. I am gonna talk to my wife and see what she thinks. Maybe local content is enough? And the others stuff we can get from unboxed, iTunes and Hulu.
We possibly took it to the extreme, but after moving 2 years ago, we never reconnected cable. We just decided that TV was wasting too much of life. We have Netflix for the occasional fix and my daughter has way too many dvds, but all-in-all, it has been a success.
My wife saw fit to remind me that I also watch the show “Big Bang Theory” which every geek should.
I’m right there with you guys.
Down with cable: it’s time for 100% on-demand, pay-per-show TV.
- max
Check out Jeff Pulver’s new startup:
http://primetimerewind.tv
Not quite as many channels as cable but it’s only just launched.
Hi Simeon,
I am sorry to learn about your Comcast experience. On behalf of Comcast, I would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
I would like to learn more about your experience so that we could prevent the problems from recurring in the future. If it is not so much of a bother, will you please send me an email with your contact information?
Thanks in advance for the opportunity to assist!
Sincerely,
Mark C.
Comcast Executive Offices
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
We’ve been surviving without TV for almost 3 years now. I know, I know, we’re weird, but honestly, we don’t miss it. When my three year old gets bored (read: we need a break), I load up a passel of Sesame Street or Thomas the Train on YouTube.
If I have a bout of insomnia, I go to Hulu.com and watch shows that are new to me, cuz I don’t normally watch TV.
The really amzing thing is that my consumerist tendencies (addictions?) are no longer an issue because I don’t see what I don’t have and I’m more content with life as it is (ie; we are debt free except for the mortgage).