Cutting the cord intensifies ... Bye, bye cable TV

[seashale76]

We got rid of cable at my house a few years ago. We never watched anything anyway.

 

[AceHero]

We got rid of cable at my house a few years ago. We never watched anything anyway.

I'm (obviously) on my computer right now and have network TV on in the background. I shed no tears over saving $100 a month.

Except tears of joy.

 

[nightflight]

I get my entertainment here at CF.

 

[Douger]

I get my entertainment here at CF.

That's a Bingo! I've never had cable, or a smart phone, but I have a laptop that gets me onto youtube and CF

 

[FreeSpirit74]

I cut the cord, although it wasn't completely voluntary.

I have been a Time Warner customer since 2001, when I moved into my apartment. I had digital, digital plus Road Runner, Extended Basic (both alone and with Internet) and the last thing I had was Starter TV and Internet. my highest bill was $127/month (digital plus RR), so I started dumbing down my cable to the Starter TV which is only $9.99/month, plus my Internet, for a total of $54/month.

On April 10 there was a fire in my apartment building, so I relocated back to my parents' house that same night, and I have been living there ever since, although I am holding to my lease and WILL be moving back as soon as the rebuilding is complete (probably close to a year wait, but there are too many good reasons for me not to abandon this apartment). My parents don't have cable; their house isn't even wired for it, but they do have their Internet through FIOS, which includes WiFi. I have a laptop, so I have been a very happy camper, being able to be online from anywhere in the house, or even out on the steps if I so choose.

I also have my TV set up in the room that is my bedroom and personal space (the same room I had when I was a kid... how nice to be back there at the age of 40!), and I am watching my TV over-the-air. Because the VCR/DVD combo I bought to replace those components that were damaged beyond repair through smoke damage doesn't have an internal tuner, I did have to buy a converter box, but I got everything hooked up, so it works nicely. Signals are all strong, the picture quality is just as good as cable, and best of all, if there is nothing good on to watch, at least I am not paying for the crap that I don't want to watch. I also have a Netflix streaming account.

My plan for when I move back to the apartment is to keep my Internet and upgrade it to WiFi, because I am on the computer much more than on the TV. I definitely want to keep using the over-the-air TV signals. There are only a handful of cable channels I would actually pay to watch (Turner Classic Movies is one of them), but only if a la carte subscribing was offered.

Cable companies given walking papers at intensifying pace | CNBC

The data show that the so-called "cord-cutting" phenomenon—where consumers jettison traditional cable and satellite packages in favor of streaming services—is about to get a lot worse. A new report by Magid Advisors surveyed 2,400 consumers and found that cord cutting is not only on the rise, but it's happening much quicker than industry watchers anticipated.

According to Magid, 3.7 percent of pay TV subscribers age 18 to 64 said they were "extremely likely" to cancel their pay TV service in the next 12 months. That number is up from 2.9 percent in 2014, and represents a 95 percent increase over results from 2011.
...
Greenfield said companies such as Netflix, Amazon and even a new Kardashian app stand to benefit "as more consumers 'cut' or 'shave' the cord," and free up dollars to spend elsewhere.
​

Who saw that coming? Consumers unwilling to spend upwards of $100 per month on programming for hundreds of channels they never watch? What a surprise.

 

[FreeSpirit74]

Personally, I have gone one step further and have stopped watching tv altogether. It doesn't save me any money, but certainly it saves a lot of time.

The irony of that quote is that TV provided him with a 2nd career outside of films.