No more cable television

digitalbeachbum's picture

For roughly six or seven years now I've talked about getting rid of cable television.

At first, I dumped cable and went to DirectTV. This worked for a while and then I got tired of DirectTV's bullshit hidden charges and their schemes to trick you in to added programming with out your permission. I found myself having to review the monthly bills for crap I didn't order.

Then I tried PrismTV but they don't have it in my neighborhood which ended up being a bad thing for my local phone company because I told them to go fuck off. They switched my phone service from $13 a month to $32 a month when I didn't even ask for it.

We had just 911 service and they put me on their new plan even after I told the asshole on the phone "I can't get Prism here because the engineer said I can't; so no, I don't want to switch. Do not switch me".

So the end came when I had switched back to cable and my bill was $185 (internet and tv). I realized that by having 1,000 channels of complete shit was being supported by me (and every one else). No one actually watches most of these loser shows and my money was going to support them even though I didn't watch them.

Today I now have ROKU which I can say is awesome, even though I don't have ESPN or some other channels. I instead have my computer to give me all my sports updates and I can watch highlights later if needed.

Now I'm paying $63 a month, not forgetting the $99 a spent for the box.

It took a little bit of time to setup, but I've got free Amazon Prime, free Netflix (temporary) and $7.99 a month for HULU PLUS.

I sat and watched some shows this weekend just to get a feel for how things worked and I can't believe it took me this long to switch.

I think my next major switch is to finally get all my computers/servers over to Ubuntu. I have a few systems along with some dual boots which I love. I just haven't been able to fully make the switch because I'm lazy and don't want to back up shit so I can get rid of Microsoft completely.

For now I'll settle for not having to deal with cableTV. I'm glad it is gone and I'm looking forward to see how things shape up with cable television dying off in the next ten years.

 

Beyond Saving's picture

Yeah, cable is a rip off. I

Yeah, cable is a rip off. I watch most of my tv through Netflix and I don't mind being a season behind. For sports I either watch the game on the local channels or go to the bar. I also bought NFL Rewind which is only $30 for the season and allows you to watch every game on demand but not live. If they are going to survive cable companies need to provide more on demand and at a better price. They are not modernizing fast enough.

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X

digitalbeachbum's picture

Beyond Saving wrote:Yeah,

Beyond Saving wrote:

Yeah, cable is a rip off. I watch most of my tv through Netflix and I don't mind being a season behind. For sports I either watch the game on the local channels or go to the bar. I also bought NFL Rewind which is only $30 for the season and allows you to watch every game on demand but not live. If they are going to survive cable companies need to provide more on demand and at a better price. They are not modernizing fast enough.

I couldn't agree more with you. Cable has thousands of shows which come and go and for good reason. I used to channel flip and would see shit like Duck Dynasty or Kardashian etc. Holy fuck! Why am I paying for this? These "reality" shows suck donkey balls and are, I believe, programmed for sloths.

I didn't know about the NFL rewind. I'll need to look in to that for next year.

Either way, I'm saving a huge chunk of change each year. Plus I believe that the rating system I see on the channels is cool because when I tell it "this show rocks" or "this show sucks" it doesn't bother giving them to me as an option.

 

 

Brian37's picture

Cable is over priced but

Cable is over priced but that is what monopolies get you. And as far as Direct fuck tv, again, this is what happens when money writes laws. I had a friend who used to work for Dish fuckwork,. I dealt with Verison as my phone company, they pulled the same hidden fee crap.

 

It used to be that you could put people in prison for racketeering, but when money writes laws crime is legal.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog

Brian37 wrote:Cable is over

Brian37 wrote:

Cable is over priced but that is what monopolies get you. And as far as Direct fuck tv, again, this is what happens when money writes laws. I had a friend who used to work for Dish fuckwork,. I dealt with Verison as my phone company, they pulled the same hidden fee crap.

 

It used to be that you could put people in prison for racketeering, but when money writes laws crime is legal.

Do you even know what a monopoly is?  Hint hint, it's not where you have lots of different options. 

Vastet's picture

I stopped listening to radio

I stopped listening to radio in 1989, and stopped watching tv in 1999. Everything I watch now is online; or in a box set if I thought it was so good that I wanted the special features and felt it was worth the money.

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.

digitalbeachbum's picture

The last two weekends I've

The last two weekends I've used the web to follow games with live updates, which seem to be delayed by about 3 minutes.

All in all, I think there is more suspense than watching the live game.

 

Also, this $7.99 a month for unlimited movies... I can't believe it will stay this way. I used to pay $3 or $4 for a Pay per View, but now I'm watching movies I would have never watched instantly with no extra fees.

Some accountant is going to come along and fuck this up and say, "hey we can charge them every time they push the button".

 

Third party streaming hosts

Third party streaming hosts for the win.  Netflix leeching also a win.  People uploading full episodes of popular shows on Youtube is the final nail in the coffin to blood sucking leeches like Dish and DIRECTV.  I'd rather invest in another shot at reviving Blockbuster than pay monthly for a service that changes it's price, plans, availability, premiums and whatever else at will.

digitalbeachbum's picture

Sage_Override wrote:Third

Sage_Override wrote:

Third party streaming hosts for the win.  Netflix leeching also a win.  People uploading full episodes of popular shows on Youtube is the final nail in the coffin to blood sucking leeches like Dish and DIRECTV.  I'd rather invest in another shot at reviving Blockbuster than pay monthly for a service that changes it's price, plans, availability, premiums and whatever else at will.

Yep. Blood sucking leeches is a good way to put it. Worse of them is the cable companies. I paid sixty dollars more for cable and for what?

Remember Pink Floyd? "Thirteen channels of shit on my tv to choose from..."

Try writing that song today? "One thousand channels of shit on my tv to choose from... and five hundred high def channels too..."

 

digitalbeachbum

digitalbeachbum wrote:
Remember Pink Floyd? "Thirteen channels of shit on my tv to choose from..."

 

That's funny since I just got done watching The Wall.

 

I now know why people pirated so heavily in the 90s and I had a problem with it at the time, but had I known what kind of cluster fuck lay ahead, I would have shut my mouth and asked if someone would pass the cheerios.