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Cable in our area is an arm and a leg..about $50 a month for the basic service. Almost $70 for anything worthwhile.
So we got a Blockbuster Rewards card, which is $10, but it paid for one of our rentals that day, so we essentially got it for $5.
We started using it, and man is it great. Tuesday-Thursday is rent one, get one free. So we'll get two non-new releases for $0.99, and that includes television series! We've already gone through two seasons of House, spending $0.99 a week on entertainment! Every six rentals (your free one counts as a rental, so essentially every 3 paid rentals), you get a free one. We use our free one on new releases, which are almost $5.
For people who have "their show" and don't mind waiting for it to come out on disk, it's a great thing to have. Also for those of us who prefer older movies or can wait until it goes to the regular shelves, it's definitely worth it.
Our monthly entertainment averages less than $10/month, including $1 day at the local non-new release theatre. We also have an LCD projector that can get up to 120 inches (which was half the cost of a small LCD TV) so we don't miss the movie theatre one bit. And cable? Who needs all those commercials!
Getting Netflix and buying a Roku box would be better. You would get movies in the mail and be able to access TV show and movies on the box for no extra charge.
Dont forget the library! Most major cities have online library websites where you can search and request DVDs, then pick them up at your branch. Some even still have VHS too.
Our library has all kinds of DVDs, including old and new movies, tv series, kids, music and instructional. A lot of the box sets you can check out the entire set at a time, which I like. There is a limit per person at a time, but all family members can have their own card. It works great for letting kids pick out a stack to watch on the weekends.
You do have to wait a bit for brand new releases, but it's free!
I do Netflix by mail and watch their instant movies. Anything else I watch on various internet sites. So I spend about $10 a month and watch pretty much anything. I don't even have a tv in my house and it has actually been great.
I'm using Netflix currently and that's a little over 15. ($15.03 to be exact)
I also check out DVDs from the library. I'm pretty excited the library system just added Six Feet Under series to the collection.
I think you are all on to something important that is changing - alternates to the tyranny of television via cable or satellite. It annoys the heck out of me that I pay $50 a month for the privilege of watching so many commercials. The cable and broadcasters should provide me free television if they want me to watch their excessive commercials and promotions.
It also seems the percentage of time devoted to commercials has been steadily rising - especially on cable stations - and that a saturation point has been reached. Viewership is on the decline, and the younger audiences which are the prime target of advertisers, are abandoning the commercial television market in droves.
It is only a trickle of unhappy viewers today, but I suspect that it will turn into a flood over the next decade or so. Television, as it is presently offered, is dying.
I watch OTA television only. Never had cable or satellite, and have no need of it. And with High Def now, man, OTA is better than ever.
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