Sunday, May 6, 2012

Dropping Satellite




We're taking the plunge, dropping the satellite tv,

WHY?


We will be saving $100 each month. 
Television shows have gotten continually worse, crossing the line.
Even the commercials, it's difficult to have almost anything on without having to switch channels quickly if our granddaughter is watching. Why would we want to pay for this?


We've been without a service contract for years now, we just pay the fee and they don't complain. The upside is that we can cancel any time.  The downside is we're stuck if we change our minds.   I won't renew any service contracts that require a long term commitment, for me that would be anything more than month to month. 
  
Look what we can get free -  yes FREE via antenna, you know, how it used to be-- except we need to make a one time purchase to get boxes for each television because it's HD now.  Really, that would be 2:  the main living room and our room.  We don't really watch TV in our room much.  Maybe when cleaning or folding laundry.  Maybe we'll get three, just in case our granddaughter, Taylor,  and out of town guests are here at the same time.  It's still cheaper than what we pay now.

We'll get all our local channels  (2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 24, 30, 46 and all the HD channels inbetween).
There are four PBS  channels  (regular, kids, World and Create)
Channel 30 has three stations (regular, Cool TV rock, and a country video channel)

Two in between channels are Antenna TV (2.2)  and ME TV (46.2)

I don't have any problems letting a 7 year old watch almost any of these.


The commercials are the funny thing.  I sort of think one of these channels is geared to older folks.  Not that we're young, but all of the commercials revolve around mobility scooters, catheters and blood testing devices.  That's ok, it's better than finding out why Bill is "happier" at work these days.   I'm thinking I might qualify for that mobility scooter, I answered "yes" to several of their qualification questions!!!!! LOL


I haven't seen Hazel in years!  Taylor loved Dennis the Menace. 

Will I miss satellite?  Sure, sometimes.  I'll miss Top Gear (BBC version), love that show! 
 I can't stream it either. 


 

Some of the weekday evening programming consists of hour blocks of 1/2 hour shows and you might not like those shows.  I don't know why they don't mix them up, but they don't.  We'll simply choose another channel, or turn on the radio, or read or sit outside.  I can't tell you how many times we scroll through 100+ channels and find nothing we want to watch.  

I want to continue to "pay" for satellite but stash it away.  At $100/month that can add up fast for emergency repairs or perhaps a special purchase such as that Excalibur 3900 dehydrator that looks pretty nifty.  It may be groceries when work is lean for this construction family.  You never know.    At any rate, it beats throwing $1200 a year away for something we don't watch.

Will I give up internet.  No.  That's almost required these days:  bill paying, information, my job at times and of course, Blogging!!  How would I get by without you all?




20 comments:

Yahoobuckaroo's Blog said...

Glad you saw the light. I went to a rooftop antenna at least five years ago, and to a digital one two years ago. (The company that makes the antenna is out there by you.) I got tired of cable always raising the price.

A couple of years ago I also started subscribing to Hulu for $7 per month. I can watch tons of movies there and TV shows that are normally Cable TV only. Just run an HDMI cable from my laptop to my TV and the whole entertainment world is at my fingertips.

PS, I watch 46.2 a lot!

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

We'll have to see about alternatives, like you mentioned.

We looked into netflix streaming but our internet is via airwaves too. (There is a business in town that put up towers for areas like ours where the cable, AT&T won't run their lines.) It didn't work well enough; however, we are not at the highest level. I think we're mid level.

Manny said...

Good for you! I'm not sure I can talk my wife into it. A couple of years ago we cancelled HBO and Showtime. We don't miss them at all. They really are bad when it comes to vulgarity. At times they went even beyond vulgarity. The only problem I would have in cancelling cable altogether is I would absolutely miss FoxNews and I would miss EWTN. Other than sports, those are the only channels I really watch.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

If we had loads of money I would think about keeping it. I will miss some shows quite a bit. Another drawback was our satellite went out every time it rained hard. In fact, we knew a few minutes before we'd get a downpour because it would start pixelating and then we'd get the "searching for signal" message. We couldn't even see the storm warnings. When it was a wet snow, Tom would have to lean out the 2nd floor window with a broom and dust off the receiver.

Beth said...

I hear ya, Kathy! Personally, I would LOVE to get rid of dish network. We live far out in the country, so we can only get satelite tv...no cable. But I"m sure that "rabbit ears" would pull in something. Alas, my husband and the kids would declare mutany and overthrow me as captain of the house if I tried to cancell that service. =) Personally, I don't watch ANYTHING at all other than 3 shows, and I could be watching them all online.
PS...My oldest son LOVES Top Gear BBC...and he also likes the american version. =)

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

We have direct TV. I don't have a problem with them per se, it's just that I don't watch anything more than a couple of shows, but we're fortunate, being just on the outskirts of St Louis, that there is a lot of programming options for us.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Oh, did I see a pool and some sort of a palm tree in your yard (on your blog- gravel post?). You're living in paradise! So lucky! Who needs tv with all that!

Felecia Cofield said...

Hi Kathy! We just had direct tv turned off last week. They went up twenty dollars and we refused to pay. Last year, my husband talked them into letting us keep the same price when they tried to go up. They wouldn't budge this year so he had it turned off. I don't watch tv anymore, as I was hoping the day would come when we wouldn't have it. I can watch Joyce Meyer on the internet and some cooking videos when I want to, but the teenage sons loves bbc top gear. He can watch re-runs on the internet, however. We discovered that we can watch a lot of our favorites on you tube. The son actually watched Gomer Pyle with us last night. He even liked it! Gomer Pyle is so funny! Shows like that are not made much any more. Just thought I'd share what we've done without tv. Blessings from Bama!

jennielee226 said...

We got rid of our cable subscription a year ago. We can't get many antenna channels in our area so we went with the $7 hulu plus subscription and a cable that connects the computer to the tv. After a while we dropped that as well because the shows we watched were available for free on the networks site.

LindaG said...

We use antenna when we're at the farm. We don't have near as many channels as you, haha. Haven't decided what we'll do when we're there permanently.
Maybe we'll look into Hulu. I like that $7 a month, it all depends on how we end up getting our internet though...

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Thanks! My granddaughter stays with us every other weekend (due to work schedules) and she was so afraid to miss Disney. We made her watch free tv last weekend and she loved it- she is 7. My mom may not like it so much LOL!

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

We signed up for a free week of Hulu plus to see what it's like. My husband said it was streaming just fine today but after 5 PM, it started to slow down and buffer. I don't know if it is always like that with our service, it's not cable, we get our internet via rooftop antenna.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Yes, we are checking on that. It was buffering so badly tonight I couldn't watch it. My husband said it was working just fine earlier, but probably fewer people accessing the internet through our small town supplier.

Carrie said...

We have antenna TV too and we love it. It's free and it's very family-friendly. It is surprising to our family and friends how many channels we get and the variety of shows we can watch. Gotta love those oldies!

Candy C. said...

Good for you guys! Wouldn't work for us, my hubby can't give up his Fox News, RFD TV and the History channel. ;)
About the only thing we watch on the networks is local news and NCIS. We have satellite TV, cable isn't available, and rabbit ears only pick up one local station and the PBS station.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Yes, we will miss some of the FOX programming, even our local baseball team is handled by them so I guess no games without paying an extra fee. That's ok, frankly, I think I'd rather go to the community ballpark and watch locals play. I remember doing that when I was a kid, my dad coached the girl's team. I was too young though so I got to run around with all the other little kids.

We can't do rabbit ears, our antenna is technically a rooftop one but it fits in the attic. I don't know the technical stuff, the ham husband does though.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I do love the old ones. Safe for family viewing and funny! So many shows are not really funny.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Many, We got the Roku see the post below. Roku has programming, lots of it, and ETWN and sports channels everywhere. Some things you have to pay for, some not. We pay $8/month for Hulu plus. Some are $1.99/month, some $3/year. EWTN is free. It's a Roku LT.
http://movingontothepast.blogspot.com/2012/05/does-anyone-use-roku-to-watch-hulu-plus.html

Anonymous said...

We have Netflix Kathy, and for $8 a month we can watch pretty near anything.... commercial free! You have made a good choice, I think.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

So far we've been pleased. The programming is nice, funny shows- nothing objectionable. We also did get the Roku and there are so many shows to watch on demand. It's $8, just like Netflix. They have cooking channels, kid channels, religious, old movies, etc. There's one call Live365 where it plays the old broadcast from one of our STL radio stations, KXOK, from the 60s! The whole programming, the music, commercials for stores that we went to as kids but have been closed for ages. So much fun!