Question: Do you still pay for cable/satellite?

[Marisa]

My satellite bill is 102 dollars a month, Netflix is closer to 10 a month, plus a lot of channels have new shows on their sites or if you are an Amazon prime member you can stream as well, so is satellite really something I should keep or is it reasonable to cancel and stream through my computer and the cable that links to the tv?
What do y'all do?

 

[SJ Coryell]

I gave up my cable/satellite years ago. I could not justify paying over $100 a month and only being interested by a few shows. And then it got to the point where I have to pay more to get access to the shows I did want and the channels I would like to have. So I gave it up and now we use Roku and get Netflix and Hulu for our TV and movies.

 

[Cadus]

I do normal cable TV and Netflix. That covers me forever.
Personally, I'm against Satellite TV because I don't think that I could ever get full use out of it. Maybe a family of six or more who all have a very unique taste in channels could make it worth it?

 

[reverenddejesus]

After a few months watching TV on Netflix, HuluPlus and Amazon Prime Instant Video my wife and I have cancelled on all these applications and subscribed to cable TV. We are now paying about $10-$15 more a month than when we just had internet and phone services and the monthly charges for our instant video applications, although we have switched providers from Cox to At&T and the service is far better overall. We shoulder the extra financial burden - which it seems impossible to get cable TV without - partly because we knew it would be better internet and phone anyway but also because we prefer watching on-air television. The choice offered by instant video had become a burden on us, we lost the pleasure of watching TV continuously and stumbling upon new or forgotten programs, and we felt more like our viewing tastes and habits were narrowing than when watching TV on programmed schedules. The decision will often come down to cost - in which case instant video will always come out on top - but if you have the money to choose an experience, we would always go with cable.

 

[FWAmie]

I haven't done cable or satellite for a while now. I like the netflix better. The only thing that I miss is the "New Movie Previews" that they show. I want to know what new movies are coming out. But if I can find it else were PLEASE someone let me know!!!

 

[kamikazefairy]

http://www.imdb.com/ keeps me up to date on new movie previews! There is a box at the top of their home screen with trailers for upcoming movies. Hope that helps!

 

[cherriesandrum]

It took me a while to stop doing cable just because I really wasn't sure how I was going to watch Girls HBO is kind of the worst in that they don't offer any sort of independent package -- either you have cable + HBO or you don't have HBO at all. Even if you wanted to order just HBO Go, you'd have to pay for the full cost of HBO.

I wish I could say that I have been boycotting HBO since then, but mostly I've found some kind friends who'll host me on Sunday nights (and occasionally lend me their HBO Go passwords ).

 

[Rickideemus]

I cut the cord two years ago -- best decision I ever made. I get everything I want through OTA and streaming on the laptop.

I'm not saying that's best for everyone. It took some time and effort to set up my indoor antennas -- and not everyone can do that. E.g. If you live in an apartment you might be stuck indoors, and building materials might completely mess up the RF waves. And for the streaming stuff, I have to be somewhat of a nerd to keep up with the URLs, which keep changing.

I truly believe you could get everything streaming live online 24/7, but you'd need a slave-nerd working 12 hours a day to keep up with the illegal feeds.

Actually, a Roku box is a good alternative for non-nerds. So if you can get local TV with an antenna, and you have good enough broadband for a Roku, then cutting the cord is a no-brainer -- unless you have to have ESPN or Fox News.

Rick

 

[kamikazefairy]

My husband and I cut the cord after realizing that A.) We were easily blowing $100+ a month on satellite, and B.) We were mindlessly watching things we did not even care about, just because it was "on." We now watch shows we WANT to watch, though I'll admit I have fallen into a Netflix binge more than once. Overall though, it has saved us a ton of money, and freed up some time that we didn't even realize we were wasting.

 

[O-O]

I should cut cable, since it's costing me about 5% of my monthly income right now but there so a bunch of shows that just aren't available on streaming.

 

[SJ Coryell]

Another think I like about services like Netflix and Hulu is you can go back and watch old shows. Older seasons are often available that you cannot find other places. My husband and I love Dr Who but I havent seen the older seasons so we are going back and watching them.

 

[rachellove22]

I pay for cable only because it includes my internet and home phone service. I pay around $130 a month for these features which is a normal rate for my area. Although I don't like the payment I don't see how I can get a better deal by separating my services with different providers. If the only feature that matters to you is cable then I would look at other options. Netflix is better price wise and they continue to make their product appealing to new customers.

 

[reverenddejesus]

I pay for cable only because it includes my internet and home phone service. I pay around $130 a month for these features which is a normal rate for my area. Although I don't like the payment I don't see how I can get a better deal by separating my services with different providers.

It was that packaging of internet, home phone and TV with a faster broadband and better service (which Cox pretended didn't exist in our area!) with AT&T that convinced us is was an tolerable financial burden to shoulder each month. In terms of our TV viewing preferences, we didn't need convincing at all. And we 'don't like the payment' either, but we don't feel as if we're being as badly ripped off as we could have been with some providers and their packages. Another factor was the amount of our free time we waste searching instant video applications for something to watch, or trying to find other shows we wanted to see on online streams-after a while it becomes more of a burden than channel-hopping even if (theoretically!) there's more choice if you stream.

 

[dkreichen1968]

Okay, I'm paying $47.99 for internet through CenturyLink. I'm paying $6.58 a month for Amazon Prime. I have Playon with the HD option. I get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, MyNetworkTV, and PBS in HD. I also get THIS, Bounce, Get TV, Me-TV, Antenna TV, Megahertz Worldview, and Create. I have two OTA DVRs. I have way more content available than I can watch.

 

[SJ Coryell]

I think that is one of the biggest reasons I gave up cable. I cant stand paying so much for things I never watch. Seems like a waste of money.

 

[cherriesandrum]

But that still happens with Netflix and other streaming sites? You just need to wade through less of the stuff you don't like. By "wade" I mean "mindlessly scroll through every Friday night."

 

[reverenddejesus]

But that still happens with Netflix and other streaming sites? You just need to wade through less of the stuff you don't like. By "wade" I mean "mindlessly scroll through every Friday night."

I think we do have to recognize that having programming you don't want to watch is the price you pay for any kind of choice or diversity in the content that's made available to you, unless you opt out of legal pay television completely. Two things strike me about this. The first is that cable companies are taking advantage of our acceptance of this fact by developing pricey bundle packages that only give us what we want to watch as long we take a bunch of channels we'll never watch, with the customer over-paying so that they get what they don't want! The second is about what cherriesanddrum picked up on, which is about how hard different TV services made you work to find what you want from their available programming. Personally, I find flicking through cable channels and deciding what I want to watch from what's currently airing far less work than idly scrolling through Netflix and settling on something that I'm not terribly interested in, but I think I'm a dying breed.

 

[cherriesandrum]

The thing is, I do think having cable TV in front of you and having a finite number of things to watch at any given time really forces the viewer to just choose something (even if it is Hoarders again god) is easier than choosing something on Netflix if you've had it for a while. The fact there are so many things to watch makes it too difficult. This is different from having something like The Voice on at 8pm on a weekend night. There are only so many things you could be watching -- and only so many things you could talk about at work the next day -- that you can settle for in the end.

 

[kamikazefairy]

I'd probably go back to cable if it were a la carte, but the bundles just didn't suit me. I watch like 5 channels, so if they gave me a list and let me pick a certain number of channels and build my own bundle, I'd be fine with that. I just don't need 200 channels, I'm home for about 3 non-sleeping hours a day. While Netflix or Hulu does have a ton of content, its also not costing me $85 a month so I don't feel like its such a waste.

 

[kamikazefairy]

HBO is difficult, though. Legally, they don't give you a lot of options for streaming their shows. They aren't even available for purchase on Amazon Instant until after the DVD release, and that kinda defeats the purpose.