My family has lived without paid TV for the last 2 › years.
While my kids thought it was the end of the world at first, and still wish we had cable, overall we have been just fine.
We cut cable after we grew frustrated with the pricing. We intended on returning to it a few months later, but we quickly realized that we didn’t need it and could save a lot of money.
We now watch TV differently — and I would argue more efficiently.
We watch network TV for free. But the majority of the time, we use our laptop computer with wireless Internet, plugged into our large-screen TV with an HDMI cable.
I’m not alone. According to the Nielsen Co., 143 million people watch television via the Internet. Another 30 million watch on their mobile phones. And 288 million still watch traditional TV.
I’ll be the first to tell you that while we watch TV differently, there are lots of people who do more. We don’t watch TV on our cell phones (the screen is too small) or an iPad (don’t have one). The laptop and wireless Internet are key, plugging into the larger TV. I wouldn’t want to sit gathered around a desktop computer or even a laptop regularly to watch TV. I do like the laptop’s mobility and often watch when I’m in the kitchen or otherwise multitasking.
If strangers walked into my family room and started watching TV with us, they would not know we’re watching through our laptop unless they were trying to find a specific cable show at a specific time on a specific channel.
We have better picture quality. The HDMI cable sends the sound through my TV’s speakers, so we have high-quality sound. (You do need a newer TV with an HDMI port, as well as a laptop with the port for this to work, so some of our older TVs aren’t compatible.)
Sure, there have been pros and cons.
My husband misses ESPN, but still keeps up with sports by watching clips online and on network TV. My kids miss the Disney Channel, but watch its shows via the laptop.
I miss just turning on the TV and catching any Food Network, TLC, HGTV or CNN show that is on. But I was often guilty of mindlessly channel-surfing or settling on a show I didn’t really want to watch.
Limited time
We’ve become pickier about our viewing. It may be because my husband and I are busy working parents of two, so our time to relax and watch TV seems to have dwindled. But with endless options on the Internet, we can still find things to veg out and watch, if we want.
We miss the luxury of the DVR to record our shows and play them back at a click of a button, and have resorted to our old VCR. But usually, we don’t watch the shows we recorded there. We’ll go to Hulu.com or the channel’s website and click to watch a show via our laptop/TV setup. Many of the shows are available the next day and the picture quality is better.
Hulu.com is nice because it creates a queue of episodes for us to watch, based on our settings. And if I watch half of a show, it remembers where I was when I come back later. One annoying thing is that we have to watch a lot of the same advertisements during the breaks.
A word of warning: I stick to official websites and do not use “pirate” sites that offer current programming and sports events. They may ask you to download something or share your email address, and I worry about inviting problems like viruses or spam.
The biggest disappointment has been networks that make you wait a certain amount of time — sometimes several days after the show airs — before a program is available online. Other networks, such as TNT, have completely closed any online viewing unless you plug in your cable TV account number. (The rub for Time Warner Cable customers is that TNT does not have an agreement with Time Warner, so even local cable customers can’t get access.)
Waiting for DVD
My husband and I are huge fans of TNT’s The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick and we really miss not being able to keep up with the season since TNT locked down its online video in the fall. But we figure we can catch up when the season comes out on DVD, and it wasn’t enough to persuade us to get cable again.
During the holidays, we were looking for a Christmas movie to watch with the kids and decided to try a free month trial of Netflix’s service over the Internet (we access it through our Wii gaming system, which connects to our wireless Internet, but you could access it via a laptop also). My husband and kids have really enjoyed it and have had their own marathons catching up on shows, and my husband and I have watched several movies. I’d like more selection, but I think I’m just picky.
It’s serving its purpose for now and at $7.99 a month for unlimited movies and shows, it’s a lot cheaper than the $70 to $80 a month we were paying as part of a bundle when we had cable. But the jury is still out. We may get rid of that $7.99 fee, too, and not really miss much.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.
