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I'd love to completely cancel my cable and go with alternatives, but - living in Canada (and me, with limited knowledge of how things work) - right now it's not an option.
I'm completely dissatisfied with my cable provider; I pay a premium for the Movie Network and other channels, and ever since I bought a new tv last year, have had nothing but problems. Channels constantly dropping (the dreaded "this channel is temporarily unavailable" message), or pixilating, or sound cutting in and out...all frustrations that my cable provider has not been able to resolve. The only way to *fix* it when it happens is to unplug the cable box, plug it back in, wait around 15 minutes for it to recycle, and then HOPE that the channels come back. Sometimes they do; sometimes they do for only 5 minutes or so. After 3 home visits with service technicians and countless phone calls to the company, nothing has been resolved.
But if I were to cancel, this same said company would charge me a premium for cancelling my contract. I'd love to go with Netflix and other options such as Hulu, BUT again, I live in Canada...home of the CRTC and endless restrictions. Yes, we get Netflix...but only get a very small fraction of what's available in the US (I have yet to do a search for a movie title in Netflix and find it available for streaming). And all other options....streaming sites Hulu Plus....are, you guessed it, blocked in Canada. And to watch something (legally) downloaded on my computer is also a pain; vids don't stream well, takes forever to run, etc. And I am not willing to give my cable provider even more money (present cost ranges between $250-$300 a month for cell phone, cable and internet, without any long distance calls) to upgrade even further.
At any rate, I will eventually cancel my service altogether, just not yet. Still waiting for the gov't to pass a (semi-promised) ruling whereby service providers can no longer charge an arm and a leg - and probably even take over rights to one's firstborn - in order to drop their service. But in the end I guess it will come down to my level of frustration with them. If it reaches a breaking point I will wind up just saying bugger it all, and cancel everything. Then my evening entertainment will consist of laughing at my dog when he catapults his toys around the room, or falling asleep watching the fake flames in my electric fireplace.
Or I may just go back to reading books. And taking up knitting. :P
My husband and i are talking about killing our satelite and just using netflix and or our computer for tv programs . I hate what satelite is charging and also the cable companys . that is clearly more money in our pocket for something else that would be entertaining to us . we are going to investigate more and see where we can go from here . Im really tired of these cable and satellite companys getting over on their customers . I am right there with everyone else cutting the cord and the satellite ....
and went only with free TV on the internet from hulu? My husband and I did this and now I wonder why people continue to be stupid and pay for cable or satellite when you can get it for free or pay 7-8 bucks a month for unlimited. Now that we have done this, I can't ever see paying 50-100 for cable or satellite ever again.
When my wife and I got our first place together we spent the first 3 years with just Netflix. Mostly because of financial reasons... Then we both finished college and had good jobs so we went with DirecTv... for the first year or year and a half we loved it. Now for the last 6 months to a year we have been paying for Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and DirecTv. We find ourselves watching DirecTv less and less and have decided to shut it off at the end of our billing cycle. The are a few shows we will miss that aren't available on Hulu, Netflix or Amazon, but we will adjust.
Dropping DirecTv will save us $110 a month for something that barely gets used.
directv, yes but a cheaper $30-40 range plan with dvr
i watch most shows online anyways, there are these nice people that post every possible tv show online w/ no commercials just after they air, many shows hours before they air
I work for DISH so I get free TV service. If it wasn't for that, I would honestly still keep it just for sports and national news coverage.
One can get Netflix and HBO Go on pretty much any device or service these days. For my business, I hate cord-cutting, obviously... BUT I can see why people do it, for sure. I can't personally justify spending any more than $30/mo on TV services.
I helped one of my nieces (who'd just moved into her own apartment) get set up with free TV. She had to buy a $49 digital converter box and a $20 RCA flat indoor antenna (about 8 inches by 10 inches); you can find both of them at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.
It took less than 5 minutes to connect the indoor antenna to the converter box and the converter box to the TV. Easy-breezy, done, and all of the channels were crystal clear. We selected "Menu" on the converter box remote, clicked "Scan for Channels," and 24 channels were located: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, the CW, PBS, Create TV, World Channel.org (another PBS channel), Bounce, Me TV, THIS, Antenna TV, the Nashville Network, etc. We deleted all of the channels she didn't want. There were about 4 religious channels she didn't really like.
Free TV is the way to go in my opinion. Why pay $80 per month – every month – for 500 channels when you only watch about 3 or 4 channels? Just pay $70 once (converter box and indoor antenna) and be done with it. That's money in your pocket every month. Who couldn't use an extra $80 per month ?
I helped one of my nieces (who'd just moved into her own apartment) get set up with free TV. She had to buy a $49 digital converter box and a $20 RCA flat indoor antenna (about 8 inches by 10 inches); you can find both of them at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.
It took less than 5 minutes to connect the indoor antenna to the converter box and the converter box to the TV. Easy-breezy, done, and all of the channels were crystal clear. We selected "Menu" on the converter box remote, clicked "Scan for Channels," and 24 channels were located: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, the CW, PBS, Create TV, World Channel.org (another PBS channel), Bounce, Me TV, THIS, Antenna TV, the Nashville Network, etc. We deleted all of the channels she didn't want. There were about 4 religious channels she didn't really like.
Free TV is the way to go in my opinion. Why pay $80 per month – every month – for 500 channels when you only watch about 3 or 4 channels? Just pay $70 once (converter box and indoor antenna) and be done with it. That's money in your pocket every month. Who couldn't use an extra $80 per month ?
Most modern tv's dont even need the digital converter box. The antenna just attaches to the back of the tv.
check out the frugal living forum. There is sizeable thread on this.
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Anyone ditched cable or satellite...
?
