Newtee has a timely piece about ditching cable:
How many times have you opened up your monthly bill from Comcast or Time Warner and thought, that’s it, I’m ditching my cable — only to keep on paying? Well the time has come. With countless ways to watch your favorite shows online, ditching cable has never been easier. And with the economic crisis tightening its grip, there’s never been a better time to save some money.
Chances are there’s already a line-up of customers at your cable company’s local office looking to returning their Motorola boxes. The Wall Street Journal this week did, after all, declare that being off the cable grid is now socially acceptable. As much as 20 percent of all TV viewers watch shows online, the paper reported, and half of those people don’t watch TV at all anymore. Still not convinced? No worries, we have five good reasons to finally cancel your cable subscription.
Timely for me since I’m sitting at my family’s rental property that has cable installed. The first night I was here, I just caught up on Entourage on HBO OnDemand. I watched it as I watch most things at home, with divided attention (web surfing, playing solitaire, etc.).
Last night I tried to watch Snakes On A Plane again OnDemand, but then I found several things on the web that I wanted to watch, and I did. It was just more engaging to watch the Daily Show, The Office, and Family Guy on Hulu. And then find the weird videos on Digg and Fark.
And then I randomly typed “Richard Feynman” into YouTube and I fell asleep watching a delightfully underproduced documentary of the late, great professor talking directly to the camera about the delights of discovering new things.
This aggressive style of self-programming is becoming commonplace. It’s just better than letting what’s currently on entertain you — having access to exactly what you want to see when you want to see just rules.
And now that more and more water cooler shows are available online, why go anywhere else?
10 Comments
October 11, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I ditched pay tv in favor of digital over the air (ota) tv years ago. It’s free and uncompressed and looks way better that what Comcast or Time Warner serve you. Granted, I’m luck enough to live in an area (Philadelphia) where I can get signal with a roof top antenae. But let me give you eg. of how backwards things are. So I don’t see the first round on ML baseball playoffs which are on TBS. But a week later, I get the 2nd round and soon the World Series in HD for free on FOX! Can’t watch Monday Night Football on ESPN, unless of course my home team is on then the local ABC will show it for free. PBS free!
Sorry bout your Angels!
October 14, 2008 at 6:48 am
Agreed! Hell with cable. Everything I watch is online now (SNL, Family Guy, South Park, Daily Show, etc.) and the huge amount of UGC that is increasing in quality makes me wonder why I ever had cable.
It’s been gone for a while, though. A couple years, actually.
October 14, 2008 at 3:04 pm
It is looking more and more tempting everyday. I want to sit on my couch though and that is the biggest problem right now.
October 15, 2008 at 6:22 am
As soon as Battlestar Galactica ends it’s run on Universal HD we are going to consider dumping cable TV. We only watch the movie and HD channels on cable anyway and AppleTV is covering that more and more. The only SD thing we watch is The Daily Show. The digital revolution and the economic crisis together mean bad times for cable TV companies in the next few years.
October 17, 2008 at 7:51 am
I’ve totally stopped watching TV. I think it was easy for me though, because when I was in Taiwan, all I watched were movies on the English movie channels. That allowed me to avoid getting into to (I hear really good) shows like “Heroes.”
I am thinking about getting Netflix so I can start watching good movies.
And thanks for the Richard Feynman clip! I’ve read all about the guy (his auto biography’s and whatnot), but I’ve never seen him on video before.
October 21, 2008 at 8:02 am
I’m with you Kent. I’m into the second week of my cord-cutting lifestyle and while i missed Entourage slightly Sunday night, I’ve done just fine getting everything else (legally of course!) via the Internet or Apple TV. And you know what? If I watch less TV, I can always read more!
October 21, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I just made that decision myself – I moved into a new place and got a dry-loop DSL at the highest speed. no land line, no cable and I have never been happier. I watch everything online (having a 17″ macbook doesn’t hurt). screw cable and their huge bills.
November 15, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Man, my TV hit the skip 4 years ago. My flatmate hit the VOD warez so hard that I freaked out hard, like screaming & shouting. Stargate SG1 on back-to-back for like a month. He’s already watched everything worth watching, but I think he’s addicted to the play button LOL.
December 15, 2008 at 8:49 pm
yeah, I ditched cable. 90% of the best shows are free and in HD so why not just put that $1200+ savings per year towards an HD tv instead of paying for re-runs?
With Hulu, a DVD surround and rabbit ears on my HD tv I don’t need cable to watch everything I want to!
January 13, 2009 at 8:55 pm
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