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Have you walked away from cable television?

January 4th, 2012 at 04:03 am

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!

16 Responses to “Have you walked away from cable television? ”

  1. Maismom Says:
    1325655500

    Funny, we just cancelled our DirecTV, too. We were paying $95 per month. We also don't know what the alternative will be.
    I don't watch much TV anyway, so my hubby is the one has to deal with the withdraw.

  2. mamasita Says:
    1325672562

    We cancelled cable over a year ago. We now just have bunny ears. We still get local news, ABC/NBC, I guess, and public broadcast. We can still get the nightly popular shows, but we actually rarely turn the tv on. We found other things to do with our time, and of course, increased our time on the internet, lol!
    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!

  3. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325678621

    I just got my latest bill. The total is $116 and some change. It shows that television is $57.95 and internet is $43.00. I called about this a few months ago and don't remember exactly what the reasons were but without television, the monthly cost will be closer to $60. I'm going to call them this morning and find out just how much I'll save by keeping internet only.

    Mamasita and Maismom, I know a lot of people who have done it and survived. Surely I can be one. Wink

  4. CCraw Says:
    1325678962

    I never had cable or sattelite up until a couple of months ago. I never watched much television. I had nexflix and ocassionally I'd watch Desperate Housewives on the internet. I still don't watch much but keep it on for the back ground noise I guess.

  5. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325679715

    CCraw, I went without cable/satellite most of my life but have been spoiled by it the last few years. I confess to that!

    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.

  6. creditcardfree Says:
    1325682863

    I say go for it. Cancel cable. You can always go back. But save that money you save...and evaluate that when you make your decision.

  7. MonkeyMama Says:
    1325682889

    We cut the cable 3 months ago, but I wouldn't call us die hard "cable cutters" as we can get most the shows streaming to our TV now through other means. Most the shows you mentioned are on Netflix if you are willing to just wait for them.

    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).

  8. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325684710

    Update - I just called the cable company and I currently have "enhanced" (faster than standard) 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 about $26 a month by getting rid of the cable TV.

  9. CCraw Says:
    1325687381

    What cable company is it? Time Warner? I know you are in Texas but I'm not sure where. My internet at home (parents house) is only $40.00 for high speed cable internet.....wow 90.00 is pretty pricey!

  10. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325687610

    CCraw, I'm in Longview and it's the local company, Longview Kilgore Cable TV. It's the ONLY cable company in town and where I live doesn't allow satellite TV sooooo.... it IS pricey!

    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!

  11. EarlyRetirementJoy Says:
    1325719334

    DeniseNTexas - After living his entire life in California, my dad up and moved to Longview about 6 years ago. He absolutely loves it!

    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.

  12. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1325724702

    I dropped cable over 5 years ago now. I have Netflix at the moment, but am actually considering dropping that and then just renting a movie from iTunes or the local video store whenever I *really* want to see a movie. (The 'local' library charges $1 fee for DVDs and is 30+ miles away ...)

    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.

  13. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325731027

    EarlyRetirementJoy, your dad lives in Longview, TX? How neat! I agree that land lines and cable have much less value than they used to. There's such a monopoly with the cable industry, it's ridiculous. Frown

    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. Smile

  14. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325779190

    This morning the cable television is still working so I still have it on. I'm not really watching it, though. It's mainly a sound issue but I have spotify for that, too. Smile

  15. Caoineag Says:
    1325910081

    We stopped paid TV service 2 years ago. Between Hulu, Netflix (streaming only), Amazon and Redbox, we haven't had any difficulty. We spend about $10 per month on "TV" now. We found that we don't miss the high price we paid for having access to a few shows.

  16. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1325937994

    Caoineag, thanks! I'll be fine, I'm sure. It's just an adjustment. Smile

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