My family and I have had cable TV for as long as cable TV has been available. It is finally time to stop paying the cable company. We are cutting the cord.
For those of you who don’t know, “cutting the cord” means cutting ties with cable/internet/TV providers. What was once a few people is not turning into a tide. Just this week, I have learned about three families I know who have either cut the cord, or are actively trying to do so.
There are a lot of reasons for cutting the cord, and for us, the best reason is the money. We reviewed our cable bill, and were shocked at how much we pay. It’s not like I planned to spend this much money 20 years ago. It just seemed to happen.
We are paying $300 a month for cable, and we hardly watch any TV at all. That seems like a ridiculous amount of money to pay for TV-but when I speak to others with cable, they have the same experience.
Good bye cable.
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The average American family watches about 35 hours of TV a week. I don’t think that we watch 35 hours of TV a year. Really. The last TV shows that I watched were:
- Part of the Eagles game on Monday night
- The Villanova-UNC college basketball final game
- The Super Bowl
That’s my TV watching so far in 2016. It’s September. There is no need for me to pay for television anymore.
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OK, so maybe I am not ready to go “cold turkey” yet. I would like to watch a football game sometimes. Maybe I would like to watch the news if there is an evolving situation.
I have done a little bit of research, and with an antenna (no more rabbit ears, todays antennae are fancier than that) and a small box, I can receive about 20 channels, including CNN and ESPN, for about $20/month and an initial $100 for antenna.
So my total annual cost should go from about $3600 to about $250. I like that.
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What I really want for television is to be able to choose exactly which channels I want to watch, and when I want to watch them. If I want to watch a football game on TV, I am willing to pay $5-10 to do that. I watch 10-15 games a year.
That is all that I want.
But cable and internet providers don’t want to provide me just that amount of TV. They want to sell me big packages of channels that I don’t want to watch. I’m tired of paying for stuff that I don’t watch.
So we’ve started the process of cutting the cord. I’ve identified someone who knows how to install antennae, and the box that provides a minimal channel package. I think we can finish this in the next couple of weeks.
I won’t miss the big cable bills. I won’t miss having 500 channels that I don’t watch. I won’t miss having cable equipment all over the place.
But I will miss the outstanding customer service that my cable company provides.
Hal