How many here watch CABLE??????

Guessing it is most of us, but I see more and more crawl out of the woodwork with comments like "We haven't had a TV in the house for 2 years...."

NO cable here. Netflix streaming satisfies my visual media fix.

I've kept cable since I moved out of the folks place 22 year ago.

Dropped it almost 2 years ago favoring in-home-network streaming, Netflix, and OTA broadcasting.

Kinda sucks having to worry about disconnecting the antenna leads from everything when a storm hits but it's a helluva lot cheaper than keeping 492 channels and only watching 6.

Sorry gila poll took a minute

cheezydemon3 said:

Sorry gila poll took a minute

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My wife says that all the time.

wait, what?

I have it but also watch streaming netflix for older stuff. Between my wife and I we watch about 20 channels, excluding the local affiliates of the networks.

My fiancée works for the cable company so we get every channel for free

I got rid of cable about 3 weeks ago. Just a waste of money. Haven't missed it at all. I had a bundle deal from Comcast that included phone, internet, cable and one premium channel that never gets watched. Got rid of the phone (never used it) and cable and the bill went from $135 to $62 a month. I should have done this months, years ago.

Haven't had cable or satellite for about a year. Wife and I just use Nexflix and Hulu Plus ($25 total for both).

I have a work laptop that ill use if we want to watch something online. Just plug a VGA cable up to the TV and have at it. I wish they would give me one with an HDMI port though. Guess I shouldn't complain about that lol

Edit: I also have a Roku box in my bed room. It has amazon and crackle on it as well. Also, if your worried about Internet speeds for streaming on a Roku, all that is required is 3mb service. Works like a charm

Mainly I miss sporting events. That and the few current TV shows I would care about: Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy.

Netflix has past seasons of plenty of shows, which is actually nice for getting into a current show, but you have to lag at LEAST a season behind.

It also has Anthony Bourdain, tons of History channel and Discovery, so I DO watch some tv on netflix.

I DO miss the occasional random thing that I would come across on KET or Discovery or even ABC that was really great, but that I would never have thought sounded good enough to select in the "on demand" world of Streaming.

I DON'T miss the mindless channel surfing that I abhored but found myself doing anyways with cable.

I have cable and use it quite often. I need it for watching my sports teams (baseball, Football). And the wife and I often watch pointless shows during the week. I also have netflix 2 discs out at a time and streaming but haven't used the streaming feature for at least 6 months....really need to ditch it! Don't have a DVR, had been satisfied with Verizon Fios Free on demand section until recently when they implemented 100% of the commercials...used to be a 30 minute show could be watched on-demand for 24-25 mins, now they play the whole thing, kinda stinks. Also some shows they don't but up until 8 days after it airs, making it virtually impossible to catch up with the current season if you miss an episode

I have cable and use it for internet. Had it for years. Love the internet service and DSL isn't available in my neighborhood, well it wasn't when I moved in and I never looked back. The TV on the other hand, well I'm indifferent, could be cable, streaming, dish, whatever. I like watching TV but I watch more movies than shows so as long as i have a source like Netflix, Amazon etc I'm good.

I think I mentioned it before but I also got rid of cable a couple of years ago. I use a TiVo HD for an OTA DVR and stream Netflix to it as well as use it for Amazon Instant Video. I had one of those cable/phone bundles too. Initially, my bill went from over a hundred a month to about $30 for cable internet. It's up to almost $50 now though. It's gone up a lot in two years but it's still a lot cheaper and I'm totally content with this set up.

brettwasbtd said:

I have cable and use it quite often. I need it for watching my sports teams (baseball, Football). And the wife and I often watch pointless shows during the week. I also have netflix 2 discs out at a time and streaming but haven't used the streaming feature for at least 6 months....really need to ditch it! Don't have a DVR, had been satisfied with Verizon Fios Free on demand section until recently when they implemented 100% of the commercials...used to be a 30 minute show could be watched on-demand for 24-25 mins, now they play the whole thing, kinda stinks. Also some shows they don't but up until 8 days after it airs, making it virtually impossible to catch up with the current season if you miss an episode

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WOW!! I get your dependance on cable. I do. I do not get the lack of netflix streaming

I use it so much I was able to get rid of cable!

I dropped the 2 discs because they just sat for months. there is SO much available on the streaming!

cheezydemon3 said:

WOW!! I get your dependance on cable. I do. I do not get the lack of netflix streaming

I use it so much I was able to get rid of cable!

I dropped the 2 discs because they just sat for months. there is SO much available on the streaming!

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We are getting to the point where our netflix disc queue rarely has something we really want to watch. Thinking about bumping it down to 1 out at a time. Since we never actually go to the theaters if I see a movie I like in theaters I will save it to my queue so i can watch it 8 months or so later. The streaming is mostly cause I haven't taken the time to update that queue. I know they have added tons of good stuff there, just been too busy with watching baseball recently.

It also doesn't help that my infrequency on netflix streaming via the PS3 requires me to have to download and install updates making it like 20-30 minutes everytime i go to stream something haha

I want to pare it down since I can find most of what I want to watch on the net in legal and not so legal places, but what is the deal breaker for me is sports.. NBA/NFL/F1/NASCAR etc. If I could find a good way to get sports without laying out as much money as I would for cable then I would be on it.

No cable, Antenna for local, roku box for web content, and whatever I can't stream via Roku to the tv set, I watch on laptop.

aygov said:

I want to pare it down since I can find most of what I want to watch on the net in legal and not so legal places, but what is the deal breaker for me is sports.. NBA/NFL/F1/NASCAR etc. If I could find a good way to get sports without laying out as much money as I would for cable then I would be on it.

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This is me. I also don't pay extra for the sports packages, so I get frustrated for those 1-off games that are on NFL network or MLB Network (My nats yesterday)....very frustrating

brettwasbtd said:

This is me. I also don't pay extra for the sports packages, so I get frustrated for those 1-off games that are on NFL network or MLB Network (My nats yesterday)....very frustrating

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Back when I had cable, I could upgrade to get ESPNU for 2 days and then downgrade back down.

They started making us keep it for a whole month, and that was part of the end for me.

Playon (for roku) seems to have some good options. I was horribly disillusioned when I found out that you have to have a CABLE subscription to watch espn3 streaming!!!!!! What is the effing point?????

We have satellite. I have to have it for Sports, although this season the NHL has me bummed out and wondering if I should drop it. But the wife likes some shows too so it's staying. I love the DVR because I can miss things if I'm busy and watch them later.

The problem is the trees growing up in front of the dish. I may have to trim that sucker soon. It's screwing up our HD and local channels.

Besides Satellite we watch Netflix on the PS3 and rarely get discs. Probably should drop that service, but once in a while we get on a kick of watching some old series or movie that is only on disc.

I actually don't watch that much tv, relatively speaking. Some evenings I play video games online with friends and I often go to bed early to read. Lately I've got little time to do much other than read as my meds put me to sleep.

I need my cable for my tv fix but must say that since there's very little competition in my area, we get screwed. However, a year ago I called my company (Cox) and told them I was looking into U-verse (I was) and wanted to know if they wanted to keep a 23 year customer who bundles and they did. They cut my monthly charge and if I agreed to that for 2 years, they also thru in a few premium channel for 2 years PLUS $100 cash. I took it. So, in another year when it runs out, I'll try to do the same. If not, I'll check to see what's out there.

Beer-lord said:

I need my cable for my tv fix but must say that since there's very little competition in my area, we get screwed. However, a year ago I called my company (Cox) and told them I was looking into U-verse (I was) and wanted to know if they wanted to keep a 23 year customer who bundles and they did. They cut my monthly charge and if I agreed to that for 2 years, they also thru in a few premium channel for 2 years PLUS $100 cash. I took it. So, in another year when it runs out, I'll try to do the same. If not, I'll check to see what's out there.

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We had the top end of everything they offered (cox) aside from having all teh premium channels. Add to that we also bundled our internet and telephone.

My bill was nearing $250 a month plus whatever long distance charges we accrued. Wifes family lives overseas so it was easy to see a $300 bill any month.

I tried working it out with cox on teh TV and phone service. After an hour on the phone they offered to save me $10 on TV after dropping down to basic service and save me $1/mo on my phone by reducing my LD connection fee.

bless em.

Dropped cable and went VoIP for phone. Cox gets $50/mo for High Speed, wife gets to make all the LD calls she wants and we don't get charged a single dime over what a local call would have been.

No guarantee that we are seeing a true cross-section, but there seem to be almost half as many of us who are kicking cable as are perfectly happy with cable.

On the street I would say that cable-droppers are more like 8% of the population, so maybe brewers are more hands on in general.

I honestly could live without cable TV, except for the news (local)...I watch shows on hulu and Netflix using my Xbox and if there is a series that I can't find on those, I usually buy a season pass on the zune marketplace and watch episodes as they come out. The only other thing I would need cable for is to watch sports, but I end up missing those because of work.

Cable, but we don't use it nearly as much with the kids grown and gone. We watch Discovery (yay shark week), Food Network, History, Nat Geo, sometimes the Travel Channel. Can't think of a single show we watch on regular channels.
Most of the time the stereo is playing the TV (we only have 1 since the kids are gone - thankfully) collects dust.

I currently have DirecTV, but would much rather spend the $70/mo elsewhere. My girls watch Nick JR. My wife watches Golden Girls. I watch the Packers.

I do most of my viewing on Netflix, mostly because when I am ready to watch something at 10:18PM, I hate sitting down in the middle of whatever.

No cable here for about a year, but we have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime streaming on a Roku. If you have to watch sports or the newest episodes of the most popular shows, it's too hard to cut the cable habit. If you are a little more flexible than it is a great way to save money and free up more time in your day. We also don't need three streaming services and will probably cancel at least one soon.

I also don't have a land line phone and pay $12 a month for my cell phone bill, but that is another thread I guess.

cheezydemon3 said:

No guarantee that we are seeing a true cross-section, but there seem to be almost half as many of us who are kicking cable as are perfectly happy with cable.

On the street I would say that cable-droppers are more like 8% of the population, so maybe brewers are more hands on in general.

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Also good to note that this is an online poll with a streaming option. That will be over represented when compared to the nation as a whole when you consider the people with no internet access to speak of.

I just kicked the DirecTV habit. Netflix and hulu are cheaper and just as good. Plus I spend more time with the kids.

I have satellite as cable in my area is too expensive in comparison--though the local cable company is also the only provider of high-speed internet in the area, so they get us either way. In the last few months though, the wife and I have been migrating over to mostly watching Netflix. I like having cable/satellite for sports and my wife has a few TV shows on various networks that she wants to see the night they air so she doesn't get whatever surprise the show had ruined by coworkers the next day. Still, I think I could live without satellite and just use a combination of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus to fit any of our TV watching needs and still save about $30 a month. If I could only convince the wife that she doesn't need to see her shows the night they air...

Antenna for locals.....redbox for movies...we've lived on a tree covered lot on the top of a wooded hill for a couple years now and there's only one reason i miss the expanded programming......college football!!

On the positive side, I have more time and my kids are very active by any standard.

Skagdog said:

Antenna for locals.....redbox for movies...we've lived on a tree covered lot on the top of a wooded hill for a couple years now and there's only one reason i miss the expanded programming......college football!!

On the positive side, I have more time and my kids are very active by any standard.

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awesome! my kids have no TV right now....a good thing.

I cut my cable tv sub about 2 years ago. Used to be 120$ a month for 10mb Internet, a couple of dvrs and basic + expanded channels (Nat Geo, etc). I got tired of paying 80/m just to watch 2 channels and having to watch commercials. Then they implemented a 250gb data cap that I blew past in 15 days.

So I dropped the tv sub and increased the internet to 50mb so it's still 120/m but I have a 350gb cap. Then I just ran an hdmi cable from the home server to the tv and use a vnc app to control it from my phone/pc/tablet/whatever is nearest to me so I don't have to get off my lazy butt.

Also for anyone interested in being really lazy google sickbeard

We ditched cable but still get the local channels through the cable line. No longer in HD. We just pick shows on Netflix and watch those. Have a laptop for Hulu but looking at getting a Roku box.

Years ago I dated a woman who worked for WOW (Wide Open West) cable. She said that every now and then her company flirts with the idea of "Ala Cart" Cable TV, where you would pay 50 cents (local network channels for example) or 1.00 dollar a month for JUST the channels you want, kinda like buying an I-tune. If you wanted multiple hundred channels, you'd pay premium dollars, but if you're like me, and would be happy with 10-20 channels you'd pay less. Premium channels like hbo would be higher of course.

She said unfortunately as much as tons of customers would jump on it, that noone would be the first company to go that route. And besides, they make too much money with the high monthly package.

But she said, that now that cable's digital, the technology to actually do that is here.

I'd be totally happy to pay 30 bucks a month for 20-25 cable channels like History, Discovery, Food Network, Cnn, Scifi and a select few others along with my local networks.

Ala cart would be great since there are only about 5 non-local channels that I even watch anymore. Without hockey that went down to 3.

Revvy said:

Years ago I dated a woman who worked for WOW (Wide Open West) cable. She said that every now and then her company flirts with the idea of "Ala Cart" Cable TV, where you would pay 50 cents (local network channels for example) or 1.00 dollar a month for JUST the channels you want, kinda like buying an I-tune. If you wanted multiple hundred channels, you'd pay premium dollars, but if you're like me, and would be happy with 10-20 channels you'd pay less. Premium channels like hbo would be higher of course.

She said unfortunately as much as tons of customers would jump on it, that noone would be the first company to go that route. And besides, they make too much money with the high monthly package.

But she said, that now that cable's digital, the technology to actually do that is here.

I'd be totally happy to pay 30 bucks a month for 20-25 cable channels like History, Discovery, Food Network, Cnn, Scifi and a select few others along with my local networks.

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That's interesting. I bet that some companies will eventually go this route as more people cut the cord. Sort of a, "some money is better than none" way of thinking.

I would actually prefer a more expansive VODDVR type service across the board. Have a series you like? Prepay and schedule the download to the VODDVR it and watch it when you want. The world of TV needs to get back to the simplistic age of VHS where you could record everything and watch at your leisure. That is when TV was truely entertaining.

At least until the machine ate the tape.

Furthermore, such a system would truely level the playing field for networks. Real time data on interest instead of a few boxes in a few houses that have no representation of what "I" want to see.

I have cable (Time Warner) and while I'm not impressed with it, I'm not going to be getting rid of it any time soon. Frankly, I'm far less impressed with Netflix and considering dropping that entirely - most of the movies on there are either dated or crap. Most of my cable channels are unwatchable garbage, but I do enjoy Travel Channel, History Channel, Discovery, and Nat Geo. The History/Discovery/Nat Geo channels have been moving more and more towards reality TV and I've ended up doing more reading than watching TV lately. I also like being able to watch some NFL games (CBS/Fox/ESPN).

Darwin18 said:

I have cable (Time Warner) and while I'm not impressed with it, I'm not going to be getting rid of it any time soon. Frankly, I'm far less impressed with Netflix and considering dropping that entirely - most of the movies on there are either dated or crap. Most of my cable channels are unwatchable garbage, but I do enjoy Travel Channel, History Channel, Discovery, and Nat Geo. The History/Discovery/Nat Geo channels have been moving more and more towards reality TV and I've ended up doing more reading than watching TV lately. I also like being able to watch some NFL games (CBS/Fox/ESPN).

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To each their own, but by "crap" I am hearing "It doesn't have the latest Ben Aflec or Nicholas Cage flick"

There are more good movies on Netflix streaming than I could watch in 1 lifetime. If by "good" you actually mean quality, not the latest hollywood whatever, then you are wrong.

"Dated" ? The THING is from 1983 and is one of the best movies you can watch, period.

If you are only interested in Hollywood's latest, then go with my blessing. Netflix isn't for you.

cheezydemon3 said:

"Dated" ? The THING is from 1983 and is one of the best movies you can watch, period.

If you are only interested in Hollywood's latest, then go with my blessing. Netflix isn't for you.

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The first line is, IMO, the only good part of Netflix (outside of a very good anime/cartoons cataloge). If you are one that is willing to turn on a old movie you've never seen the the Netflix catalogue is good for that. I am consistently surprised by some older films that I passed up when they weren't "dated". One example is "Girl with Dragon tattoo". I had no interest in this film when it was "new". Watched it a while ago and found it to be pretty interesting.

As for the second line, ayup. Not gonna see many box office hits until it's already made it's way through BetaMax sales.

I had Dish, which is really just Cable's almost as evil twin. 250 Channels. $80 month. I watched History, History 2 (Once History just pushed repeat on Pawn Stars and some lumberjack shows), and sometimes CNN and FX. Wife watched Cooking, Travel, and AMC. For the last year have just streamed Netflix and now Hulu+ via the PS3. Took me 20 minutes to politely tell the ladies at Dish I did not want their service anymore and why I was canceling. Seemed they couldn't understand how their $20 package had NOTHING I wanted to watch, and the H2 and AMC was only available on the premium $80+ packages.

This past weekend hooked up the bunny ears to get the local shows again. Really it is just so we can watch a football game if we ever need too. And after I got them working, watched PBS.... I'm lame.