I'm on the verge of canceling my cable television. I'll keep cable internet as it's one of very few internet options where I live but I can save somewhere near $38 a month by giving up the television option.
Update - I just called the cable company and I currently have "enhanced" cable internet. If I get rid of the cable TV, the monthly cost for just the internet will be about $90 and there's a one time fee of $45 billed to me. The total bill is about $116 a month so I'd save only about $26 a month by getting rid of the cable TV.
The only thing that's holding me back is uncertainty about whether there's enough web based viewing options to satisfy me. That might sound silly but let me explain. I very rarely watch local news or any news. I get almost all news online. I don't watch shopping channels or cooking shows and only rarely watch the occasional comedy show. So what do I watch? Movies and what I call "The Law & Order channel", TNT. I also watch USA and History. I like series like 'Bones', 'Lie to Me', and 'The Mentalist' and am into biographies and history shows, also. I'm not necessarily opposed to other shows but find myself drawn to shows like the aforementioned ones and am not sure there are enough shows like that with web based only viewing.
I have Netflix and at the moment have both streaming and DVDs but am going to streaming only this month.
So, have you given up cable television for web based viewing? If so, how has it worked out for you? I'd really like to do it!
Have you walked away from cable television?
January 4th, 2012 at 04:03 am
January 4th, 2012 at 05:38 am 1325655500
I don't watch much TV anyway, so my hubby is the one has to deal with the withdraw.
January 4th, 2012 at 10:22 am 1325672562
The kids at first complained, but they found free kid channels to watch, which has better quality programming anyway, or they find other things to do with their time, like the rest of us.
BTW, great job on the smoke free, over half a month!
January 4th, 2012 at 12:03 pm 1325678621
Mamasita and Maismom, I know a lot of people who have done it and survived. Surely I can be one.
January 4th, 2012 at 12:09 pm 1325678962
January 4th, 2012 at 12:21 pm 1325679715
I do have Netflix and I love it and will probably get rid of the DVD option and keep just the streaming option. It's cheaper and there are a lot of movies and shows I can stream via my PS3.
January 4th, 2012 at 01:14 pm 1325682863
January 4th, 2012 at 01:14 pm 1325682889
I used to watch a lot more reality TV, but now primarily stick to catching up on the sitcoms I never watched, on Netflix. But I have enjoyed finding a lot of True Crime stuff, etc. on Netflix. (I've seen most of them, but eventually the stuff I am missing now will show up on Netflix).
Funny Story - the kids told me they did not miss Suze Orman one bit (How boring! They are only 6 & 8). So, dh says, "Of course you can watch Suze" and found it for me on some new streaming thing he found - which has the most up-to-date shows. Now I can torture the kids because I missed something like 12 episodes that I now have. !! I think originally dh couldn't find it, but he had just noticed it on some new service he was trying (which is free).
January 4th, 2012 at 01:45 pm 1325684710
January 4th, 2012 at 02:29 pm 1325687381
January 4th, 2012 at 02:33 pm 1325687610
On their site it shows this:
Enhanced internet - As fast as 16 Mbps $84.95
Standard internet - As fast as 12 Mbps $49.95
I had the standard for awhile then got in on some promotional deal for the enhanced but honestly, I don't remember how fast the standard was! I'm wondering if I should just go back to that since it's $50 a month!
January 4th, 2012 at 11:22 pm 1325719334
We are currently bundled (land line/internet/cable) at $99.00 a month, or $125 after all the nuisance taxes are added in. Our company, Time Warner, just dropped their bundling price for new customers to $89. I'm planning to call tomorrow and offer to extend our contract if they decrease our rate in lieu of changing over to a new carrier in the summer, when our current contract expires. I'm sure I'll have to get through several layers of CSR's before getting to someone who can actually make a business decision, but I'm ready to wage war. Otherwise, goodbye land line and good bye cable. At this point they have much less value than in years past.
January 5th, 2012 at 12:51 am 1325724702
The only tv show I really watch anymore is Person of Interest, and I can see that on the stations website.
Prior to dropping cable, I had a Tivo and was a tv aholic. What led me to dropping it was two-fold - 1. A 200+% price increase in two years, and 2. I knew I was wasting way too much time on tv -- I started a process of elimination about three years earlier, so by the time I dropped cable, I was actually down to just three shows -all of which I could see on their websites for free.
January 5th, 2012 at 02:37 am 1325731027
Frugaltexan, I have the feeling that like giving up smoking, this will cause me a little angst but it will pass and I'll merrily find other things to do. I sure hope so! I really don't watch that much anyway and am selective so I think I'll adjust pretty quickly.
January 5th, 2012 at 03:59 pm 1325779190
January 7th, 2012 at 04:21 am 1325910081
January 7th, 2012 at 12:06 pm 1325937994