television | Smojo Speaks

Cutting Out Cable Television. My Alternatives.

Over 2 weeks have passed since I called up Cox Communications and told them to cancel my cable television service. You would think that this would be a hard transition for someone like me. Considering almost my whole life I have lived with cable tv. But it has been pretty easy and I am actually liking my entertainment options better. There are only 2 downsides to not having cable tv. I miss having TNT and ESPN to watch basketball. I also miss just channel surfing through over 100 channels. Yes I was one of those people who would change the channel all the time. During commercials or just because I was bored with what I was watching. So I don’t have the option to flip through channels anymore. So how am I keeping myself entertained these days? Here is how I am cutting out cable television.

On my first day without cable I decided to go out and buy an antenna. Thanks to AntennaWeb.org I was able to see that I would pick up a decent amount of local channels with just a cheap antenna. So the antenna takes care of local channels. It picks up FOX and MY45. Both channels show Family Guy. So I am a happy. The rest of my entertainment options come via the PS3.

Sony added flash 9 to the PS3 browser a few months ago. This lets me enjoy videos from the internet on my TV. So I am able to watch movies, sports games and video podcasts right on my TV by utilizing the PS3 browser. Another thing the PS3 does is it connects to media servers. I am then able to watch videos that I have stored on my computer.

My favorite alternative so far has got to be Netflix. Many of my friends use Netflix so I knew it was a good service. But what I didn’t expect was the amount of content they offered for you to watch instantly. Once I started browsing what you could watch instantly I immediately signed up for an account. I am using a program called PlayOn which lets me watch content from Netflix through the PS3. The program also lets you watch content from Hulu, Youtube, ESPN and much more.

If you have any other suggestions on alternatives please leave them in the comments.

Popularity: 79% [?]

2009: 01/21
POSTED BY: smojo
CATEGORY: television
TAGS: cable tv
hulu
netflix
ps3
tv
1 comment

Saying adios to CableTV. A long relationship ends.

Well Cable we have had a long and at times fun relationship. I can remember in my younger years spending all my time watching Nickelodeon sitting 2 feet away from the TV. I can still remember when I actually watched MTV. As I look back on my many years of having cable tv one thing really sticks out which is I don’t watch that many channels. At the moment I normally stick to a few channels. Comedy Central for shows like Southpark, Futurama, Daily Show, Colbert, and occasionally I will watch a movie or some standup. Cartoon Network for the new Star Wars cartoon and for Adult Swim. ESPN for sports (duh). TBS for Family Guy. When you look at what I just wrote you will notice that all those shows are available for me to watch online with the exception of sports.

So when the New Year hit I asked myself the question. Why am I paying over 60 dollars a month for 200+ channels if I am only watching 6 channels. The way the cable companies have their pricing does not fit how I watch TV. So I am going to stop giving them money until they change the way they do their pricing. My local cable company is Cox Communications. At the time of writing they only have 2 different packages available. One is for basic cable which costs $22 a month. Their basic cable channels are a joke. Channels 2 to 22. The majority of the channels you can get with antennas. The next package they have is for digital cable which is for 60 dollars a month. This package gives you over 250 channels. Why so little customization? I want options! Why am I paying for channels I will never watch? I can’t think of any other service that works this way.

Goodbye to you Cable TV. Maybe one day you will give your customers more options. Maybe one day you will let your customers pay for only the channels they choose. You have the technology to do it so stop being greedy.

In my next post I will show some alternatives to having cable.

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