How do you watch TV?

[stroguy]

I am ready to axe DirectTV, too much money for crap I never watch.

I need 3 sports, baseball for sure, Football and hockey as well. But I don't watch a lot of other stuff. TCM and some other movie channels. Don't have HBO or any other pay movie channels.

I have 3 TV's, living room, bedroom and out at the pool in the cabana. None are smart TV's. But of course I have wifi internet and an iPad.

What do you do?

[tommyb]

Your setup is practically the same as mine, but all 3 sets are Samsung smart TV's. I only watch a handful of channels and the rest I can do without. In my world you would be able to pick exactly what channels you want and pay only for the time the tv is actually on. Dream on, right?

[F6B1911]

I went through that dilemna a while back, the monthly bills always had a habit of "Rapid Rise" syndrome.
It's exactly as you describe, too much money for crap I never watched, and got tired of playing the switch game after the 12-month discount ended.
In the Detroit metro area, both cable and satelite dish offerings treat the consumer like they are morons, and neither has the sense to offer ala carte menus, so I refuse to use their products.
I went out and bought the largest HD antenna I could find which gives me all of the channels in my area.
An Apple TV with a Synology NAS was a nice little addition for TV and movies.
I have no monthly bill, but no sports channels, if I need to watch a game, I'll hit the local pub.


If you're even a little internet saavy, you'd be amazed what you can find on usenet.

[willtill]

My old lady pays for the Cable TV (Verizon FIOS package - complete). If it were me, I'd ditch the Cable TV and just keep the Internet connection. We also have a Amazon Fire TV with a Netflix subscription... that's all I need...

[zzh54]

The start of this past summer was the end of my cable. The bill was getting out of hand. All though I don't watch much sports, I can make plans with friends or local bar to watch what I need. As for now My daughter has an account with Netflix and I have account with Hulu that we share.

[Bill_C]

I dialed it back to an internet connection (no cable, dish, etc.) and then added Netflix. There's also lots of content on the internet in general, but it takes a little searching and patience. In a pinch I can rent/stream a movie through my smart TV. Overall it can be a little boring, but that forces me to find something else to do.

[Bighutch14]

I cut the cord for about a year. The reason i went back was because of sports. It gets difficult when theres a big game I want to watch when I dont have cable. Saved plenty of money and its very easy to do, but you need to change your sports viewing habits.

[Old Ryder]

I am ready to axe DirectTV, too much money for crap I never watch.

I need 3 sports, baseball for sure, Football and hockey as well. But I don't watch a lot of other stuff. TCM and some other movie channels. Don't have HBO or any other pay movie channels.

I have 3 TV's, living room, bedroom and out at the pool in the cabana. None are smart TV's. But of course I have wifi internet and an iPad.

What do you do?

Hey Stro--I have done this for the last 2 years and it works!!!! Trust me. Call and cancel Direct TV!!!!! I did it for the 2nd time Tuesday.

Now you must completely quit with a cancel date and everything. Within a few days they will call you back with lower prices, but you have to do the complete song and dance of telling them to pick their stuff up and wait for them to call. I get the total choice package 212 channels with DVR and service for 2 TVs for $65 per month. I add the MLB package in March (Yankees fan BTW)

[seadog]

Charter cable is a greedy outfit but the direct TV and the others are almost as bad. But you put a dish in the yard and the first few drops of rain or snow flakes takes those out. So I am stuck with the greedy Charter cable, I have the sports package and extend basic and the HD. High speed internet, and phone. They are reaming us pretty good for all that at close to 200 a month.

[dkooris]

We've also decided that it's kind of stupid to pay $110 a month to watch TV, and we don't even have premium channels. Getting a new Roku, cutting back to basic cable at $17 per month, and keeping Netflix. Most shows stream online now anyways. I'll miss the old movies, but you can rent them, and it's far cheaper and more fun to go to a bar to watch the big game. Next is the landline, but I'm getting a lot of pushback on that from the wife.

Geoff in CT