Reader Poll: Cutting the Cord

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July 29, 2013 by drandmrso

The O household is now officially cable-free. We finally made the move after months of discussions that went something like this:

“I think we should get rid of cable.”

“How much are we paying for it?”

“A lot.”

“Ok, let’s ditch it.”

<A week passes>

“Weren’t we going to stop cable?”

“Oh yeah, we should do that. But what about games?”

“Most of them are on network channels that we’d get with an antenna.”

“We haven’t tried our antenna here…will it even work?”

“Probably, at least for a couple channels.”

<A month passes>

“We really should get rid of cable.”

“Definitely. Why haven’t we done that yet?”

And so on, and so on. But earlier this month, I noticed that our bill had gone up significantly—almost 50% more than what we had been paying—and it was finally time to just be done with it.

We originally signed on for cable last summer because I am a total Olympics junkie and I convinced Dr. O that we could just keep it for the month of Olympics coverage and then cancel. Wrong! We got used to the expanded channel choices (we hadn’t had cable as a couple before, and Dr. O grew up without it, too) and the awesome convenience of DVR, which allowed us to watch our favorite shows together even given Dr. O’s crazy schedule.

It was easy to justify keeping the service: with both of us working it didn’t cost that much; Dr. O’s favorite sports teams aren’t local, so the games likely wouldn’t be on network channels that we could get with an antenna; HGTV is fabulous. But it boiled down to lifestyle priorities for me: I had found myself coming home from work and tuning out to the tube rather than diving into a book, and I wasn’t proud of it.

After returning the DVR on Friday I felt as if an annoying neighbor had moved away; I felt a little lighter, a little freer.

But here’s the catch: there are still shows I want to watch. So what’s the best method? I’m turning to you, my trusty readers, for your opinions on the wide (and expanding) world of TV streaming services. I’m talking about things like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, etc. How do you get your shows these days? Feel free to elaborate in the comments section!