I grew up in a very rural area without cable television. When I was about 15 years old, my family purchased a satellite so that we could watch television. Prior to the satellite, we were able to receive three local networks. I used to really like to watch television. I like ESPN, the History Channel, HGTV, etc. Lately, however, I can’t really find anything worth watching. My wife and I will watch 24 and American Idol, but neither show is all that great. I have a month-to-month contract with Dish Network. I’m really thinking about getting rid of the satellite. My kids like the shows that come on Noggin and PBS, but we have plenty of DVDs that they enjoy watching. As an experiment, I’m going to try to go a few days without watching the television, and see how things go. We pay about $50 a month for satellite television and I’d love to put that money to better use. My wife enjoys Lifetime (the bane of my existence) but I think that she’d be just as happy without it. I’m sitting here right now and I literally cannot think of a single show that I’d like to watch.
11 Responses
English Major
February 15th, 2007 at 10:46 am
1Go for it! You can get pretty much anything worth watching on Netflix, anyway.
Ellen
February 15th, 2007 at 11:07 am
2Personally, I loathe the TV. I didn’t have one for several years (late college & singledom), and didn’t miss it a bit.
My fiance, though, has a hu-u-u-u-ge HDTV and the ultra-super-premium cable package, and has to have something on in every room at almost every moment. I’ve mostly learned to tune it out, but it’s really difficult. ADD central!
So whenever I hear about someone contemplating shutting off the idiot box, I feel utterly envious. Go for it! Wish I could do the same.
Moneymonk
February 15th, 2007 at 11:52 am
3They need to come up with a package that allow you to choose your own channels.
I guess they will not make money that way.
MERLE SNEED
February 15th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
4Funny you bring this up. I haven’t had the television on all week. I could cut it off, but Mrs. Sneed would have me locked up.
Recruiting Animal
February 15th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
5We must have better TV up here in Canada than you do down there.
Debt Hater
February 15th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
6I already cut cable and don’t miss it all. I almost never TV on anymore except to watch DVDs. You won’t miss it.
Sheltie
February 16th, 2007 at 12:28 am
7I haven’t had a tv for 5 years. Decided then that it was a huge waste of time for low IQ programming. Anyway, I haven’t missed it once.
Mia
February 19th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
8We haven’t had TV for about 2 years now, don’t miss it at all. We didn’t want our 3 children raised on the crap they put on the tube these days. We subscribe to Netflix for our movie fix.
James Davis
February 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
9My wife and I disconnected our satellite service several years ago when we decided to get out of debt. Now that we’ve been out of debt for over a year I’ve been contemplating satellite again. However, after traveling and staying at a few places with satellite and cable hook ups, I’ve come to realize how little there is that I want to watch any more. We’re going to save the money.
A while back, I bought an HDTV tuner from a clearance rack ($100) and hooked that up at home. I went from receiving 4 channels with my antenna to getting 10 channels (including 2 PBS). Now I can get my occasional fix of useless television without any recurring costs.
(Also, any shows that I really want to watch can be found online.)
Erin
February 20th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
10I don’t have a TV and it saves me tons of money. I have a free Netflix subscription (won in a contest) and tend to read blogs and watch YouTube videos when I need more entertainment than that. I save money on the monthly subscriptions AND on the absurd cost of purchasing new flat screens, etc.
This may be related to the fact that my parents never bought a new television in the entirety of my time at home and never subscribed to cable. I grew up not needing TV, and so I am reaping the financial benefits of that now.
Aussie_Boy
March 11th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
11Free-to-air TV programming on Australian TV is almost intolerable. So much of it is absolute crap, and anything worth watching is ruined by 40% ads.
What makes things even more annoying is that the major networks run many shows overtime to discourage channel surfing. You now need to set your VCR with a 15 minute buffer either side of a show to catch all of it.
Pay TV is not much better, mostly old movies and B grade drama. It has also dramatically increased the number of ads shown.
My TV is on the blink. When it goes, it won’t be replaced. There is soooo much more fun to be had online.
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