Comments on: DirecTV: Canceled

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:14:14 +0000

The wife and I dropped cable a few years ago in an effort to cut our monthly bills. We’ve talked about signing back up a few times, but it never really goes anywhere. We’re back to the rabbit ears which manage to get most of the local affiliates in a pretty watchable condition. I’d seriously consider an Apple TV, but my television isn’t fancy enough for that (it’s probably 10 years old by now).

We haven’t really missed it too much. I get a pang of regret when I see what Cartoon Network has nowadays, as well as when I consider the Daily Show and Colbert Report. I also feel like I missed out on an important geek milestone in not having a DVR ever.

All the same, I’m not sure we’ll ever go back.

By: Amie

Amie — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:19:57 +0000

I feel like such a prole for keeping cable. But my kids adore Noggin (still blessedly commercial free, which is more than I can say for their dvd collection with all of the ads I must skip every bloody time we put one in for them) and I’ve got my sci-fi shows that I am a bit too impatient for to wait on iTunes or whoever to release it up to 2 days later after all of my friends have already seen and dissected every scrap of meta. If it weren’t for the kids (and Catholic guilt) I might ditch comcast and go the torrent route. But I don’t think I could actually get away with something like that at this point; there’d be a rebellion in the Gillingham household!

By: Papa Joe

Papa Joe — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:49:25 +0000

bbbbut u r gonna miss such enlightening shows such as “Trading Spouses”, “The Biggest Loser”, “Big Brother” and the ubiquitous “American Idol.” How will u survive?

By: Paul Lambert

Paul Lambert — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:47:19 +0000

Ended my DirecTV contract yesterday. It felt good.

Now I just have to sell my receivers and dish quickly, before the market it flooded by everyone else bbum knows!

By: The Death of Television? « Shebanation

The Death of Television? « Shebanation — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:23:16 +0000

[...] friends without kids rely on Netflix for everything now. I’ve seen a number of blog posts like this one where people have done similar [...]

By: Alderete

Alderete — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:53:16 +0000

We gave up our expensive ($80/month) cable package almost five years ago now, as part of a budget downsizing effort. While I do truly miss HBO and Showtime (which we watched via our TiVo without any real issues), we’re pretty happy with the entertainment package we have now: $18/month basic cable (which doesn’t require a box), a rooftop antenna for the local over-the-air High-Definition channels (all the major broadcast networks), a HD TiVo to record shows, and a Netflix three-at-a-time subscription (also $18/month).

Of all of it, the HD TiVo combined with the over-the-air broadcasts is by far the best value. Yeah, most of commercial TV is a wasteland, but there are good shows out there, and it’s entirely free (we have a lifetime subscription for our TiVo).

Next is Netflix. At under $20/month, we watch at least as much “premium” content off discs as we would if we had HBO, for less than a quarter (1/4) of what it would cost to have HBO in HD, and with a much wider selection of shows and movies.

AppleTV, as much as I want to like it, doesn’t do it for me yet. The selection isn’t there. Apple is famously ahead of the curve, and Steve Jobs has the vision and confidence (and track record) to make the move to online-only distribution before it’s truly practical, and build the market ahead of him. Kind of a Field of Dreams effect.

If the AppleTV had a Blu-ray player built into it, I’d buy it in a heartbeat; great for today, ready for tomorrow. But for now, I’m sticking with my TiVo, disc player, and Netflix.

By: Mike Laster

Mike Laster — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:11:49 +0000

I did this a few months ago, just when the writers strike started. I did the numbers and discovered that for as little TV as I watch, it is actually cheaper to just buy season passes off of iTunes and watch on my AppleTV. It comes out to about half of what I was paying for DirecTV and I never see commercials anymore.

By: Matt Doar

Matt Doar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:56:28 +0000

We dropped cable seven years ago and haven’t bothered with an antenna. I dislike what the commercials do for my children, I find myself disturbed by violence and irritated by patronizing programming. We watch DVDs from friends, the library and NetFlix. My wife still wants cable for the Olympics and Jane Austen

By: spribyl

spribyl — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:56:20 +0000

Why I still have cable:Discovery Channel, TLC, Adult Swim on CN.
Of yeah, I have basic cable($20) month. When the force digital on me the I will leave.
I have NetFlix lowest level and still threaten to cancel that ever month because we don’t watch the movies.

By: John C. Randolph

John C. Randolph — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:25:17 +0000

I haven’t subscribed to any cable or satellite service for several years now. Once I was able to buy shows from the iTMS, bundling just pissed me off.

-jcr