Thursday, April 3, 2014

Cable TV


After many years of having and enjoying cable TV, I have now opted out. Definitely there are some good things about cable TV. For example, besides educational programming sometimes you can only see certain sporting events or pop culture shows if you have a cable subscription. But for me and my household, we will be finding our entertainment elsewhere.

These are some things I do not like about cable TV and the companies that run it:

  • being lured by short term discounts that are tied to 24 month contracts
  • having to pay outrageous prices
  • having 200+ channels but regularly watching only 5-6 at most 
  • dealing with a customer service department that, more times than not, is lacking 
  • having to buy a whole tier or package of channels that you aren't interested in because there is one channel out of the 30 that you do want  
  • feeling pressured to bundle with other services if you want to save money 
  • experiencing intermittent outages in service, especially during storms or the Word Series
  • discovering that being a loyal customer is not valued - to get the really good deals you must be a new customer
There are times when I miss having cable, but with an antenna in my area I can pick up three national networks.  There is always the option of looking into satellite service, too.  However, I am finding that I really don't watch the television much anymore. 

Someday I may go back to cable. By then I will be a new customer again and be able to cash in on some lucrative deals.  Then again-- I probably won't ever go back to cable TV.  

How do you watch television? 

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I mostly record shows and watch them when it suits me. I love watching episode over episode in large chunks. It is more enjoyable that way.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the challenge.

CarolynBrown-Books

MS said...

I had a DVR with my cable service and would record shows to watch in batches too. But I had to give it back when I turned off my service. I may just have to decide to go buy myself one!
Mary

Anonymous said...

I don't have cable either. I miss the nature channels. I used to put them on in the background while I worked. I have Netflix now, but there's a limit to how much I can use, so no more background TV :(

Unknown said...

I have cable, but am quite content to watch the three major tv networks myself. My husband is disabled and tv is his entertainment. It is ridiculous the prices they charge!

MS said...

Thanks for all your comments!

Anonymous said...

I have DirecTV, and they have always been helpful to me. If you ever go back, you might give them a try.

Suzanne McClendon said...

We haven't had cable or satellite television in several years. We bought a Roku box and we can watch a lot of things through it. It was a one-time fee. We also have a Netflix DVD & instant play subscription and Amazon Prime (once a year fee). We have access to more things than we have hours in the day to watch.

I don't see ever going back to the hassles of cable or satellite television.

Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

I havent had tele for over 20 years tho we do have access to dvd viewing and while I guess I miss some good stuff mostly I know I don't miss anything at all.
Sandra a to zer @ 'life without television"