There have been a lot of bloggers out there who have been making the case against cable or satellite tv, whichever you prefer, and a lot of households seem to be in agreeance. The first loss (albeit only 167,000 consumers) in pay tv consumers in recent was the most recent quarter. According to an In-Stat report, the main outlet hemmoraging customers is cable, as Satellite and Verizon's Fios is growing every month. Even with the skewed marketing research and the difficulty to tell how many consumers are actually cutting their pay tv subscriptions out, it might seem like a genius plan to cut your subscriptions with all the other sources out there to get your favorite shows. Especially when broadcast sites are offering some shows for free the day after they air, and if that fails you can pay for the shows you want to watch in several ways for only $.99-$1.99 an episode on Amazon on Demand and ITunes, just to name a couple. Why pay fifty to even one hundred dollars on a TV subscription in your home when you have options, plus the economy is lightening your wallet enough as it is. Why continue to fork money over to the unreliable Comcast or Time Warner, or even DishTV?
Sports would be my first answer. So many much like myself can't give up the sports. You really want to come home on Monday nights after work and not be able to watch Monday Night Football all winter. Winter is gloomy, and weekdays without the NFL are sad, and I need that Monday to get me through the week. Yes, most games are on broadcast television, but it is only regional games. I shell out a lot of money to get the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengal games in Tennessee, in HD. Plus, baseball games are rarely ever on network television and you are only going to the get the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox, and maybe Angels in nationally televised games. NBA is in the same boat. The playoffs is really the only NBA you need to watch all year, but still even to catch any games during the regular season, you need TNT and ESPN. I don't know anything about Nascar, but I know Nascar takes up a whole ESPN channel on a too often regular basis, and that is supposedly the most watched "sport" in America. Soccer fans definitely would never see any soccer without ESPN or Fox Sports, plus there are many extra channels offered that show European Leagues. I spent a year in Italy and Germany playing basketball, and they made it very clear to me there that Soccer is Europe and Europe is Soccer, so I guess those matches would interest hardcore American fans. NHL is hardly shown at all, but if you love hockey you can get the extra NHL subscription only offered on cable and Directv. I can go on and on about sports, but they are important to me and I couldn't imagine not having a plethora of games at my disposal at any given time. The internet doesn't offer really much of any reasonable options that make sense at this time. Nobody better mention XM Radio as a replacement. I am sucked into that too, and it is good to listen to on the way to work and on long trips only, don't expect me to be in my car listening to a huge game.
The other question that needs to be asked is how heavy of a user are you if sports aren't important enough for you to have a pay TV subscription? If you only watch one or two shows, or less then it is probably no big deal. You can get these shows online, purchase them off numerous sources for a small fee, or wait for the DVD. If you watch reality television, beware, you might not only need a cable box or satellite dish, you may also need a DVR, because these shows are usually not available online and usually don't sell DVD sets. Of course, if you can catch every episode don't worry about that either. There are a lot of reality TV shows that you would enjoy if that is what interests you on almost every cable channel. My girlfriend prefers shows on E!, Discovery Health, and A&E. She rarely watches them on time, but with a DVR recording it every time it airs, she has a constant choice of 3-5 unwatched episodes of each when she does make time to watch. I am a heavy user. I enjoy television and have multiple shows I watch and try to keep up with. If you are like me, pay television is much cheaper than the alternate sources that are available. I have 7-8 shows that I DVR, plus I use On Demand for movies, and I have netflix on top of that. With just the shows that I DVR it would cost me around $300-$320 a year to watch all of the seasons on other sources. Plus, I would not have any sports and my bill only runs at $54.99 (not including NFL Sunday Ticket). This means I pay around $700 a year for television, but that television is completely on my terms. Basic cable is only $17.99 from Comcast and from $32.99 with Time Warner, so there are very affordable solutions available. Plus, with the fierce competition out there, prices continue to drop.
The last thing you need to consider is equipment. This most likely won't be the case for anyone reading my technology blog, but surprisingly enough, many households still do not have a digital and/or flatscreen TV. Many homes don't have a computer and many don't have high speed internet, or internet at all. If you have a standard TV you can still have a digital cable box, DVR, and On Demand, it just won't be in high definition. You won't be able to hook up your computer to a standard definition TV to watch shows you download, because in most cases watching television shows on your computer is not ideal. Also, if you don't have a fairly high speed internet connection and a computer, preferably a laptop with a sizable RAM, then you will have difficulty downloading shows. I do have these things, but that is what I like, many households don't feel the same way. It is a personal decision, but you have to decide what your needs are and what is important for your viewing pleasure. Just don't be so quick to jump on the "cutting the cord" bandwagon, when there are so many deals out there and so much programming you may be missing.
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