Is Cable Worth It?
I think I am going to finally pull the plug and cancel cable. I do not have Dish, Comcast, DirecTV or any of those fancy packages; just basic cable. There are only two shows I have been watching that are not on Hulu or viewable on their respective network’s website. One was a reality show I wrote about in my last article called “Bullrun”, which just had its season finale last Thursday. Congrats to Team Lambo, by the way, for winning it all. Part of me would have liked to have seen Team Hummer in the final three instead of Team NSX since Hummer were the kings of the challenge in the first several shows of the season. But NSX, Lambo and HemmeCuda put on a great show for the finale. Now please convince Goldberg and SPEED to release all the seasons on DVD, please!
The other show that is not legally viewable online I have been keeping up with is RAW, which has been a staple of mine since its inception in 1993. Lately I have been starting to watch RAW over at a friend’s pad these past couple of weeks, and in glorious HD cable to boot. WWE’s other three prime time shows: Superstars, NXT and Smackdown are all available on Hulu. As are 24 and Lost, both of which are unfortunately rolling out their final episodes over the next month or two. The Office is also available online, as are the animated shows I irregularly watch like South Park, Simpsons and Family Guy. I rarely kick back at home and channel surf, so I told myself I do not really see it being worth an extra $40-50 a month just to watch RAW.
Now if I had a family, that would be an entirely different scenario and would probably opt with some premium channels so there were plenty of options available for everyone. But for just me living by myself, aside from the aforementioned shows all being available online and the many choices to watch from Netflix Instant Streaming, I have a growing pile of movies and TV season DVDs and BluRays I need to catch up on and should tide me by for the foreseeable future.
So my question is: is anyone of the Robot Panic community in the same situation I am in? Do you find it worthwhile to keep cable, or just ditch and watch your shows through DVDs, Netflix and the series of tubes? Part of me was thinking this would be a growing trend, but I ran into an old acquaintance at a bar a couple months ago who is now a cable installer. I asked him if they have been getting more people than average over the past couple years canceling cable with the emergence of Hulu, Netflix Instant Queue, etc. To my surprise he said installation rates are actually on the rise. Since I am not as plugged in as I thought I was to cable trends I find myself mighty curious how others digest their cable. So what say, you RP community? How do you consume your television?
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Tags: Cable
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:06 am
I ditched cable over a year ago and the only thing I miss is hockey.
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:54 am
I wouldn’t mind ditching cable, but the only thing I watch is sports, and I watch them pretty much year round.
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:24 pm
The easy answer to your question is: No. Cable is never worth it. Seriously, the price you pay for the product and service you get is fucking outrageous; especially if the name on the check you’re writing happens to say, “Comcast.”
But I pay for cable for certain things that I really enjoy. I watch a lot of football and basketball (some baseball), and for me, missing out on football in the fall is not really an option. It’s an activity that my family loves to do together, so we make a point of making sure we’ve got access to the games. Most of them are on network television, yes, but we also watch Monday nights on ESPN.
I also pay for a couple premium channels: HBO and Showtime. Though we’re considering ditching Showtime and just being patient when it comes to Weeds and the other shows on that channel. HBO, though, has some great stuff that we don’t like waiting for, so losing that would be more of a bummer. Though every time I write that check, I think to myself, “This is fucking ludicrous.”
I think in the not-so-distant future, as things like Netflix Watch Instantly, Hulu, ABC’s awesome streaming app, MLB’s live thingy, and as more channels like Comedy Central, TBS, and others jump in, cable television will become more and more obsolete. Unless, of course, Comcast is successful in their quest to stomp that shit out.
Fuck that company. Seriously. Right in the ass.
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Yeah sports and ESPN I will miss, but our break room is almost always running Sports Center and I subscribe to a couple of ESPN’s podcasts to stay current. As an alternative to keep up with the Vikings, Twins and TWolves, I picked up an HD Antenna at Target on clearance for $5, whoo, now it will be like how I grew up spending the summer out at the farm where we only got four or five channels!
I am unaware of Comcast’s evil doings other than they are just generally a piece of shit company overall. Can you fill me in on their sinister ways?
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I never had cable when I lived alone. When I got roommates, I’d pay my share and I’d watch it too, but I didn’t miss it on my own, off and on, over the years. And that was before streaming. I’d never pay for it by myself again.
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Tiggermango and I just ditched our cable as our lives only desire interwebs. With Netfix, Hulu and the amount of download available these days it’s nit worth the $50-70/month. Besides if I really want it I can buy most things on iTunes that I like. Just my thoughts.
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I channel surf on the weekends so it’s worth it for me, the basic package anyway. It’s also nice to sit down and watch a show on cable when it first airs instead of having to wait for it to be put up on a website and then watch it on a computer monitor instead of my TV.
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I just moved last week, and we decided not to bring the astronomical Comcast bill with us. I picked up an HD tuner and set up PlayOn on a 14 day free trial. It is a service that acts as a sort of media server for your consoles. I will stream basically anything from the web including Hulu to your television. Between PlayOn and Netflix I find that I’m watching less TV and actually watching things I enjoy, rather than just whatever is on. I do miss Discovery HD though.
May 3rd, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Stacey and I dumped cable and switched to DISH a few years ago. And recently we dumped all of the SD programming and stuck with pure HD. Our package comes with a DVR so we watch what we want. We don’t subscribe to any of the premium programs (HBO, Showtime) but we do enjoy what we get in the DISH HD package. For one, AMC has some of the BEST television out there which is kinda weird, but still awesome! FX, HISTORY, and DISCOVERY HD are staples in our home. Yes, I know you can stream some of these shows, but I gotta admit they look pretty bad on my plasma. So I guess it’s a question of if you want to enjoy programming or GOOD LOOKING programming.
May 3rd, 2010 at 6:20 pm
All I watch is Lost and considering that it gets put up on the ABC site the next day, I don’t really know why I even have cable. For the final season of LOST, I hooked up my cable box that was before then collecting dust in my closet. As soon as LOST ends, I am booting it’s grey, blocky ass back in the closet.
The rest of the cable channels are a wasteland of reality shows, 473 channels of music, and endless blocks of sports channels.
You get my vote to kick cable’s ass to the curb.
May 3rd, 2010 at 8:31 pm
I haven’t had “cable” (ie. Time Warner, Comcast, etc) in over 10 years. I was a DirecTV customer for several years (late 90s – early 2000s), then had nothing for a few years (was too busy with other things).
Then in late 2007 I signed up with DISH for a HD-only package + local channels (I had just bought my first HDTV) and have been happy with it ever since. I just have one receiver and pay about $40/month. It’s worth it to me because I watch a good amount of Discovery, Science channel, History, Comedy Central, and Adult Swim, as well as sports (mostly NFL). I know I can watch some of the stuff online, but it looks so much better on my TV.
I also have the $9/month Netflix plan and stream several movies and TV series to my HDTV, which is awesome.
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:33 pm
We’ve never had Television in our apartment. All of our TVs are entirely for video games, and movies (whether that be VHS, Laserdisc, DvD, HD, Blu-Ray, etc.) When there’s a particularly good show I want to watch, I do it via Hulu or the appropriate network website, Netflix, or whatever.
Even if I watched lots of TV, which I don’t, I wouldn’t see Dish or Cable or any of that nonsense to be worthwhile. Eff it.
May 4th, 2010 at 9:46 am
I’m moving soon, and I’m trying to figure out what I want to do. I think most of the streaming/computer based options are still too tricky for my average houseguest to operate. I’d be tempted to give up on cable and do OTA HD for my tivo, but not being able to watch Top Chef/Doctor Who/etc. would be hard. Maybe I’ll look into DISH or DirectTV.
May 4th, 2010 at 10:40 am
I don’t even really watch shows anymore(aside from MASH, fuck yeah). Not on TV, Hulu, Netflix or anything like that. I just don’t care about most of the shows out there anymore and if I do I’ll probably just buy the box set.
Just like with games, I find I’m wanting shorter experiences, but more often. Thus I watch a lot of movies instead. There’s a pawn shop around the corner from me that sells used DVDs at $3 each, and entire season boxsets for $10-$25. I walk in, throw down $50 and I’ve got enough movies and shows to entertain me for a couple months.
It feels like a much better system to me.
May 4th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Fuck cable. I would end the hell out of that if it weren’t for prewife and her pertinacious desire to watch every TLC MTV freakshow on the face of the earth.
I want to take a season of Hoarding: Buried Alive to a foreign country and watch their reactions, followed by them berating America as the dumbest collection of all humanity for a straight three hours.
I thought the “big digital switch” would end the stupid 16:9 4:3 version of every channel. But it didn’t. Then the “HD quality” of every channel except Fox has been degraded to fuckall so HD television is stupid pointless.
May 4th, 2010 at 10:54 am
@Delerat. Ha! I find myself wanting shorter experiences so I never get to watch movies anymore. Having a small child makes it harder to fit a movie and sleep in a weekend evening.