Cutting the cord

Posted on | June 22, 2009 | No Comments

I suppose it’s not actually cutting the cord when you cancel satellite TV service but it works.  I cancelled DirecTV last week and bought an aerial antenna to get local HD service.  First off, the antenna is amazing and with a bit more aiming and once the local stations move to Lookout Mountain here in Denver it’ll be perfect.  The picture quality make your cable or satellite provider look ridiculous.

Now, as for DirecTV, I cancelled for a host of reasons but the big motivator was the money.  It was costing $80 for two TVs, HD, middle of the road programming, and no premiums.  And what do you get?  No service in storms when there is a tornado in the area, cable and free antennas worked during the storm.  You also get crap like Fox News, MTV, and Home Shopping piped into the house.  I hate the Hills and Fox News is more “reality TV” than news and we all know how close to reality reality TV is.  Hell even CNN has become an entertainment network.  Good news and good journalism is lost and I doubt it’ll ever come back in this era.

So $80 gets you no TV in storms and when it is working you get crap.  Everything I’d really want to watch is either on Discovery/Science/History channels or air TV.  With my schedule I don’t really have time to waste with TV.  I’m not going to sit here and say I’m one of those “intellectuals” who doesn’t own a TV, in fact I own $4000 worth of TVs.  I enjoy watching it but I just don’t have time and I find when I do watch it, I waste a lot of time.  I also waste a lot of time on the Internet but you can take that over my dead body.

I guess the bigger shift has been in the way I want to be entertained.  I want it on my terms and my schedule and TV doesn’t offer that.  The DVR and the Internet were the beginning of the end.  My wife watches a lot of shows online at abc.com and whatnot.  I prefer to read gadget sites and other technology oriented sites on the Internet.  I get all the entertainment I need and it’s $40 a month to Qwest for DSL not $120 for TV and DSL.  The biggest loss would be live sporting events like the NBA playoffs.  They’re always on cable until the finals so we will miss that.  And if my Phoneix Suns are good next year I’ll really miss it.
We plan to set up a DVR to record over the air things we want to watch and use Netflix for the rest like Weeds.  This way we blow through a season in a lazy winter weekend and don’t have to wait each week.  We’re not caught up in the Jon and Kate plus 8 drama.  We’ll spend more time at the gym, more time together with our dogs, and more time doing useful things all while keeping $80 in our pockets each month.  I spent a considerable amount of time as a kid lobbying my parent’s to get cable and now I’m without it for the first time in nearly 20 years and I’ve never been happier.

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