Cutting the cable .....

[Ethan Melad]

if you want to get away from cable but don't get antenna reception, you can try Aereo.com. works pretty well for us, and is like $8/month. Seems a little silly paying for something that should be free, but $8 is a whole lot better than paying $40 for a bunch of stuff I don't watch anyway.

[Justin Ludwig]

I cut it off 10 years ago. There are times when I can't see a game because its on ESPN or something, but I usually get over that in 15 seconds, and do something more useful with my time.

And with small kids, we're better off without it. Pretty much every study says it makes kids dumber and less able to focus, anyway.

+1 Here. Going on 8 years.

People tell me it's a down side to not knowing current events from watching the news, but IMO and experience, this is one of those instances where "ignorance IS bliss".

Tim,

We use Netflix and Amazon Prime. We're not sports fans unless it's going to a game. When we can't find something to watch we both read. I can't imagine a person liking be shut off of broadcast TV if they're not a reader.

[David Weaver]

if you want to get away from cable but don't get antenna reception, you can try Aereo.com. works pretty well for us, and is like $8/month. Seems a little silly paying for something that should be free, but $8 is a whole lot better than paying $40 for a bunch of stuff I don't watch anyway.

Cable charges a "broadcast TV Fee" now, anyway. I thought that was illegal, but I guess they claim that it costs them money to rebroadcast it (reality is it always did, and they just want to nickel and dime on fees).

The only reason I know this as someone who cut cable TV off is that I have cable internet and they have set up the pricing structure so that the discount for having basic cable TV is the same price as the basic cable TV. We don't use it, though, we use a $20 digital antenna instead, because we get more channels locally than cable rebroadcasts, and the other basic channels are worthless. Years ago that was my first step, get rid of expanded (because reception is terrible here due to the mountains), and there were still a few decent channels, but they all went away from basic and digital TV transmits here a lot better than analog, so we get the pleasure of paying for basic as part of comcast's pricing scam, but we don't use it.

[Ethan Melad]

hm thats interesting. Aereo is a defendant in a supreme court case challenging their ability to charge for broadcast TV; I wonder if cable company practices will have any bearing on the outcome.

[Chris Walls]

Tim
My television died almost three years ago and I did not replace it. I cancelled the Directv and haven't looked back. It took about a year for the satellite tv people to stop calling a couple or three times a week. My wife has a tv that she watches movies and series on with a bluetooth player. I'm not a big fan so she usually watches alone. I really must say I have not missed it. I still have my internet connection , and read a lot at sights like this one, and the news on a number of sites. I usually read in the evenings, I have subscriptions to a number of magazines and enjoy them , the local paper (such as it is ) comes every day. We go to the local library often and I can sit and read all of the magazines that I would never buy a subscription too. I would say give it about 6 to 8 months and see if you don't like livings a little more unplugged.
Chris

[Judson Green]

Never had cable. Started doing Netflix/Chromecast late last year. So between it, the antenna and everything the internet has to offer I'm pretty covered.

Actual that's not entirely true, at times I'm frustrated that Netflix doesn't have some movies that I'd like to see

[Tom Stenzel]

I remember when cable came to Detroit my room mate and I decided to get it. When he left, I remember turning on the television twice the next month. And didn't find anything to watch either time. I called Barton Cablevision to come get their box.

When I got married my Wife had a 25 inch color television and cable where she was living. I had a 19 inch portable on a rollcart, complete with rabbit ears and a VCR that didn't work. A previous room mate of mine had jammed it with a tape and didn't tell me. Close to a year after he had moved out I still hadn't noticed.

A few years ago I came home and found my Wife had signed us up with AT&T U-verse. To cut costs we've since dumped the TV part but still have the phone and the mighty 1.5 MPS service, the cheapest they sold at the time.

I never had any sports channels so I don't miss them. But then most of the world doesn't have the Detroit Lions to watch as their home team. All I need to do is take a little tinfoil from my hat, hang it from the rabbit ears for a 'lil extra, and I can get Hockey Night in Canada. That's about all the TV sports I need. For some reason I still prefer to listen to the Tigers on the radio, must be from growing up with Ernie Harwell.

-Tom

[max taylor]

my wife and I are planning to do the same. max

[Moses Yoder]

Netflix will recommend shows to try based on what you watch from them; this has actually led us to a lot of shows we didn't know about and now like. I was not allowed to play sports as a child, thus I have no interest in sports. I have no interest in news either, since it is all bad. If you are interested in sports and news there are web sites you can subscribe to for those. I did some research while thinking about following the Wolverines (Michigan football) last fall and found most of the network television websites have various subscriptions to stream sports. I get all the news I need from friends and coworkers but there are plenty of news sites online as well.

[David Masters]

I cut the cable two years ago and haven't looked back. I bought a cheap TiVo box and pay a monthly charge of around $15 for the service. I can get Netflix through that. Hulu and Amazon are also available, but the TiVo can't distinguish between Prime or non Prime customers, so got a Cheap Roku box which does support Prime memberships. But I found that I don't use Amazon Prime for videos that much.

[Larry Frank]

I hate my cable bill but pay it each month. I say to each their own. There are a number of shows that I really enjoy. I have some issues with my back and such and need some time a couple times during the day to just sit. (Yes, I could read which I do about two books a week.)

I find that there are a number of shows that are really good on History, Science and National Geographic channels. There are a lot of shows that I think that are junk but others like.

Great country where if you do not want cable you do not have to buy it. If I want my cable it, I can buy it.

The best thing about the DVR is that you can record shows and then watch them and zip through the commercials without watching them. We rarely watch anything live except some sports shows.

[Bert Kemp]

I cut Cable over 10 years ago , I have my 42 inch plasma hooked directly to a computer and I watch any thing I want for the cost of my internet connection. I watch my local news in the morning and night. I watch my Nascar on Sunday, I watch the Super Bowl and the world series all pretty much commercial free. There's a website that has just about every tv station in the world on it. Theres another one that has just about every tv show you can think of old and new, NO COMMERCIALS. I use that one for Mash, Hogans Heros, and a bunch of other old shows.Well anyway like I said I can watch just about anything there is to watch out there on the net. Oh and every radio station in the world also. These people that are paying a cable company big bucks each month to watch commercial must be crazy or just don't cars about money.

[Tim Boger]

I cut Cable over 10 years ago , I have my 42 inch plasma hooked directly to a computer and I watch any thing I want for the cost of my internet connection. I watch my local news in the morning and night. I watch my Nascar on Sunday, I watch the Super Bowl and the world series all pretty much commercial free. There's a website that has just about every tv station in the world on it. Theres another one that has just about every tv show you can think of old and new, NO COMMERCIALS. I use that one for Mash, Hogans Heros, and a bunch of other old shows.Well anyway like I said I can watch just about anything there is to watch out there on the net. Oh and every radio station in the world also. These people that are paying a cable company big bucks each month to watch commercial must be crazy or just don't cars about money.

Hey Bert,

Pls check your messages, I'm interested in your online sources for programming.

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Thanks for all the feedback guys!

[Brian Elfert]

I cut Cable over 10 years ago , I have my 42 inch plasma hooked directly to a computer and I watch any thing I want for the cost of my internet connection. I watch my local news in the morning and night. I watch my Nascar on Sunday, I watch the Super Bowl and the world series all pretty much commercial free. There's a website that has just about every tv station in the world on it. Theres another one that has just about every tv show you can think of old and new, NO COMMERCIALS. I use that one for Mash, Hogans Heros, and a bunch of other old shows.Well anyway like I said I can watch just about anything there is to watch out there on the net. Oh and every radio station in the world also. These people that are paying a cable company big bucks each month to watch commercial must be crazy or just don't cars about money.

Care to tell us the names of some of these websites? I didn't think you could watch any NFL games online for free. (Not that I watch any NFL games anyhow.) From my admittedly limited searching a lot of TV shows don't seem to be available online, but I am probably not looking hard enough.

[Brian Elfert]

What I really want to see is the ability to only pay for those cable channels I watch. I suppose a dozen channels might cost 50% of what I pay for a large package, but still 50% cheaper than what I pay now. The ESPN channels cost each subscriber about $5 a month even if you never watch ESPN!