Cable TV companies are the biggest rip off. I am trying to convince my daughter to

[mfcorey1]

downsize the premium package that she has. I am visiting her and a good deal of the channels are advertising infomercials. Why pay for someone's advertising? The cable company has the channel's package so "screw you" that if you want certain channels, the infomercials are wrapped in the package. This infomercial intrusion is especially dominant at night and late owls are subjected to everything for sale from bras to vacuum cleaners.

[napi21]

1. I hear ya, but sometimes, depending on the cable co. you must buy the

package if you want your favorites. ie: I don;t wnat to dela without MSNBX, and without cable plus, I can't get it. I LOVE to listen to bill Mahar every Friday night and he's on HBO.


I've complained to our cable co. many times that there are only a few channels i watch frequently, and NONE OF THEM include the Golf channel, paid ad channels, and many of the childrens channes.

I;m glad te childrens channels are available for the many kids who watch, but I would gladly pay more for individual channels that I select, on a per channel basis, then have to pay for all he ones I NEVER watch and never will watch!

[MADem]

2. Grab the remote and change the channel. You can usually find a film or something

mindless on one of the 'specialty' channels to watch (that is not an infomercial).

[Enthusiast]

3. This is what happens when the government

represents corporate interests at the expense of the consumer. We should have REAL competition and reasonable prices. It's bullshit just like the rest of this suck ass second rate right wing nation.

[KT2000]

4. As a night owl

I am totally disgusted with the infomercial programming that is on most of the stations. I have satellite and live on the West Coast so the infomercials start early. When I complained to the company they said they are not responsible for programming?!?!?!

[melm00se]

7. they are partially correct

When I complained to the company they said they are not responsible for programming?!?!?!

your TV provider only controls the content by selecting the channels/networks that they make available. It is not DTVs fault that some networks choose to fill their early morning program slots with paid programming.

[KT2000]

5. As a night owl

I am totally disgusted with the infomercial programming that is on most of the stations. I have satellite and live on the West Coast so the infomercials start early. When I complained to the company they said they are not responsible for programming?!?!?!

[Raine]

6. Those infomericials really piss me off. I have insomnia

and might still be awake till 5:00-6:00 in the morning and just about every network has that crap on. It's wrong that we are paying for those infomericials that go on for hours. :mad:

[eilen]

27. Really? I find Home Shopping Network and QVC

oddly soothing. There is little variation in tone and no flashy light changes. I will put it on when I am tired, having trouble settling down/lots on the mind and need to space and hopefully snooze into a good sleep and it usually works.

The informercials are to jumpy and loud, as is the news channels.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

8. All I can say is that books are good.

It's what we used to do before T.V. Some of us still do it. I'm fortunate to still be able to afford 5000 channels of crap. I would still rather read a book, and I do. About one per week. What with the resources we now have available to us, there is simply no reason to be held hostage to cable propaganda.

[ejpoeta]

9. does she have broadband internet? we dumped satellite in november

and don't miss a thing. first ask her how many of those channels she actually watches. chances are it is only a few. for us (with two adults and two kids who actually watch) it was ten. that included the kids cartoon channels. Now, I found I was watching most everything online because I was missing things too. We can find almost anything we want to watch online.

We bought a roku which is an internet streaming device. We have netflix and hulu plus which is #20/mo. You can get Playon (if you have a decent enough computer) and can get many of the channels through there. The quality of the picture may be less than cable, but if my computer could have handled it then it wouldn't have mattered to me. That might matter to your daughter.

At the very least you could scale back the cable. And a lot of people are doing just that. It doesn't even have to be a roku which you can buy at walmart now. We had to buy it online. There are other devices. I would do research first. I am so used to being able to watch all my stuff on my own time now though. It's hard to make the time to watch things on the tv stations' schedules. And there are less commercials. When you watch a regular show on regular tv you realize how many commercials there are!!

But it is more work than cable. You can't just flip through the channels. You have to actively look for something to watch. And I will not find anything I want to watch. I have some issues with Netflix display screen and how they show me movies on it. But that is a different issue. There are many channels in the channel store and private channels to keep you busy.

[CBGLuthier]

11. You should check out the new Netflix Instant Watcher channel

Best 2.99 I ever spent. Using that channel you can drill down through the entire Netflix streaming catalog, add items to your queue, and launch the official Netflix channel. They have a light version you can check out for free.

And for those who have been considering a Roku the new ones are coming out now and they will even play Angry Birds. 60, 80 and 100 dollar models.

[ejpoeta]

28. i thought it was just for your instant cue not the whole catalog. ok if it is the whole catalog

it sure would be worth a look.

[hobbit709]

12. I tried internet streaming.

Unfortunately the shows I wanted to watch are NOT on Roku, Hulu, or Netflix.

[Frank Cannon]

14. Netflix is continually adding to their catalog of TV shows

Sure, you have to wait for them to show up, but big deal. Patience is a virtue.

After going through all of their Mythbusters episodes, right now I'm working my way through every episode of Star Trek that I never saw before. And although I have never seen Farscape, I've heard a lot of great things about it and will start digging into those when I'm done. And we've continued our DVD option so that we can still see shows like Mad Men as soon as they're released.

What am I missing so badly that I can only see on cable right now?

[hobbit709]

15. i canceled my cable a few months back when they had another increase.

Two years ago when we got cable it was $62/mo and that included HBO and it wasn't even a special deal.
when I canceled it was $78/mo without HBO.
The first 3 days after I canceled, I got 3 calls from Time-Warner trying to get me back with all sorts of deals. My response was why couldn't you give me that price BEFORE I canceled.
I'm now on DirecTV again with a completely new setup on the roof(The reason we dropped them originally was the receiver crapped out and the antenna was being blocked by the neighbor's tree. Since we owned the dish, it would have cost us to have them move it, etc.) By signing up again, i got a brand new install for free and for a years it's costing me less than half of what the cable wanted. Even for the second year on the contract it's still about 20% less than what cable was getting.
I don't care that much about watching movies-maybe one movie a year comes out that I care to see. I have about 400 movies and 200 documentaries, classic cartoons, and things I like on my hard drive(about 2 terabytes worth) and I can watch them anytime by turning on my HTPC connected to my TV.

[ejpoeta]

19. we had directv for years. my husband used to install it and we got the basic package for free.

we still kept it even after he left that job. when we shut off directv we were paying $100 but had 4 boxes. the thing i hated was having to have a box on EVERY tv. but we were watching 10 channels. bob tried to call them before we dropped it with a cable offer but they wouldn't budge. i mean, our receivers were falling apart. they were like eight years old! they didn't have any of the newer features. but they would do nothing for us. so we said screw it. now they keep sending us stuff every other day. come back to directv!!! nope. not going back. don't even miss it. thought we would. did at first. but we don't miss it at all now. kids don't miss it either. they watch netflix and even youtube (sonic). they LOVE watching afv on hulu too.

[hobbit709]

21. Technically I have two TV's

but only one that I watch regular. the other is a 24-inch LCD monitor with builtin tuner.

[Shagbark Hickory]

26. I have dishnetwork and it has become very expensive and no... they won't budge.

At least not very much. If you call them 4 or 5 times, they'll come down on it about $5 for a limited amount of time.

[Shagbark Hickory]

25. Or...

not to be a cynical asshole but if you wait much longer, the networks and cable/sat providers could put an end to it just like the music industry put an end to most of the free music sites.

Especially if you're using a cable company for your broadband. I'd expect them to eventually do something about it too.

[ejpoeta]

31. i worry about that too. but we aren't stealing tv. we are streaming from legal sites

that are licensing this stuff legally. but i know what you mean. these devices are taking business from the cable and satellite companies and they are already trying to put a stop to it by making attempts to charge more for people streaming netflix and such. this is why net neutrality is so important. they can charge you based on your bandwith usage, but not charge more because of where people are using their bandwith.

[ejpoeta]

16. well that sucks. it does depend if you can find what you want to watch.

The only things I couldn't watch were on TBS and USA. Most everything else I can find. This worked for me because based on what i watched it worked. I am hopeful that more things will become available. More things are coming all the time.

Netflix has tv shows now too. But not very many. They add more all the time. But you can watch netflix on most gaming devices and if you have a bluray player with internet streaming it most likely has that capability. If you have a tv with a cpu input you can plug a laptop in and just stream through there. Have even more access that way actually. Most shows are available through your computer. But there are other ways besides roku. Lots of internet streamers out there. Prices vary.

This is definitely something that depends. It isn't for everyone. You have to look at what you are watching and see if you can match it with an internet streaming option. I didn't have any premium channels in the first place myself. We were on the next step up from basic. I can watch msnbc and current tv, cnn (i think) through the roku. bbc, rt and others. And I can watch podcasts ( guess they are those) the next day. I can now watch the daily show on hulu plus (thank the gods!) but again it isn't for everyone.

[CBGLuthier]

10. Got rid of cable 13 months ago.

Do not miss it one bit. Yesterday I watched the latest episode of Breaking Bad one day after it premiered on CABLE. It cost me less than 2 dollars. Four episodes a month less than 8 dollars to watch a great show and not one penny to pay for the alleged history, alleged science, and alleged news channels.

[Frank Cannon]

13. I have not had cable TV in nearly 20 years.

I think I missed having it the first year. Now I only feel sorry for people who pay through the nose for that crap.

[no_hypocrisy]

17. Happy with my Ludite analog TV service.

And I rarely watch that.

[ejpoeta]

20. i missed the history channel when it disappeared into the armageddon/alien/reality channel.

sometimes i'd turn to the history international channel to watch the history shows i used to watch on the history channel. turns out i can watch them on netflix. a lot of them anyway. discovery used to be a good channel too.

[CBGLuthier]

22. I remember when BRAVO was a good channel

watched I, Claudius and Max headroom there on their TV too good for TV concept. I guess they meant it..

Cable devolved into Newton Minow's reality ages ago.

[elocs]

18. I got rid of cable & satellite years ago. I get the networks in HD over the air for free,

and along with my Roku box and Netflix streaming I have more to watch than I know what to do with. I also use Hulu on my laptop.

There is much, much more to Roku than being able to watch Netflix streaming on your widescreen tv and I think that many people miss out on all of the channels that are available on Roku.

[ejpoeta]

29. definitely!! you can even stream music on pandora. i ended up getting chaneru

so i can stream my movies from my hard drive (and music and stuff)to my tv. wish they had ability to just plug and play other than mp4 or whatever it is. maybe a future model. but there is tons of stuff. itunes podcasts. i am so glad we dumped satellite. feel so free. just one thing... got so used to watching stuff when i get around to it. don't usually make time to watch things on the tv station schedule. i did do it for the voice though.

[Raschel]

23. I hate that many channels on cable run the same show over and over. What variety.

I keep telling myself I'm going to cancel, just not sure what I should get to replace it.

I am going through chemo so I do need something to watch. If I wasn't, I would just chuck the whole dang thing.

[Shagbark Hickory]

24. I may be switching down from the top programming package myself...

I have satellite and the reason I would want to keep the top package is for one channel, Rupert Murdock's National Geographic Channel and also there are a lot of Sirius/xm radio stations that I listed to a lot.

If it were just the one channel, I could just order dvds of the shows I want to watch about once a year. And for about $10 a month I can get about 50 of those satellite radio stations. Of course by the time you do all that, the $20 a month savings is not really there anymore.

[ejpoeta]

30. is there certain shows you watch on nat geo? netflix has a lot of nat geo stuff on it though i

don't know how current they are. check online to see if you can stream them online. you might be surprised. don't know much about the sirius/xm thing though.

[Shagbark Hickory]

32. Yes. But...

By the time you factor in a netflix subscription, the $20/month saved is down to about half of that.
You may get a lot more value for that same money but it's yet another bill to pay and another thing to learn how to use etc etc.

[tammywammy]

33. I love my DVR

I set it up to record Family Guy, American Dad, stuff on the History Channel, NatGeo, and Bravo. I go to school at night, so this gives me something to watch after I get home to unwind and on the weekends.

[fishwax]

34. I'm a nightowl but I love my cable

Love is perhaps too strong a word. But I like it. OnDemand programming usually gets me through the infomercial hours :)