A while back I was having a budget crisis and I needed to cut some costs. I was looking at my bills and found something that would be an obvious solution, and saving me a load of money — my cable subscription. I realized that being a couch potato did not have to include paying $60 a month for 500 channels that I never watch, and also that most of the content that I watch could be viewed online for free anyway. Ditching the cable was an easy decision for me, and you might not have any problem doing it either.
What should you do?
Well first you have to ask yourself a few questions: who are you? what do you watch? and what do you pay?
Who are you? It all comes down to if you are a family guy, if you have any room mates, or you are a single bachelor. In other words you wouldn’t want to turn off the TV on your kids, or your friends. If they watch it ask them what they watch and if they would think it’s a good idea. If you have kids then it might be a good idea to keep it for their programing which they can easily access.
What do you watch? Chances are if you only watch prime time TV then you can see it on Hulu, or your countries’ equivalent. I can see all of my programing on the internet in “various ways”. If you are a big time movie guy and need your premium channels then you also might want to consider a Netflix subscription and see if that suits your needs. I think you’ll find it a lot more useful.
What do you pay? Look at your bill, and ask yourself if you are truly getting your money’s worth. Chances are that you aren’t and you’ll find the same content online. Consult the people you live with –if any– and see what you can do as a group to either eliminate it, or just pay a little less. If you live with multiple people you should be dividing the bills anyway.
What’s killing TV?
Short answer? The internet, and cost.
There are so many ways to get your content online though Hulu, YouTube, torrents, and other streaming sites. There is nothing that will ever stop viewers from putting content online for everyone to see. Sure, there are drawbacks, and it may be illegal, but it’s not stopping anybody.
Piracy is what is taking over, and is killing the networks slowly. And in this ass backwards economy I don’t blame people for doing it. Prices are going up on everything, people are taking pay cuts, and people everywhere are losing their jobs because the people they work for don’t think they can afford to pay.
Look at all the piracy that is happening. Look at how more than 50% of the people who watch Heroes torrent it. Not only that but we also have things like Hulu making it easy for common folk to view TV shows they’d otherwise have to catch at a specific time slot. With all of this I think everything will be able to be viewed over the Internet within the next few years. I can see subscription fees for this, but I can’t see them as astronomically high as what cable and satellite providers charge.
My thoughts
I honestly refuse to pay $60 and up for basic service when I can get it all for free online. I have Hulu, a Netflix subscription, and a lot of “other ways” to see the content that is on TV without cable or satellite. If Hulu is profitable through ad revenue then I can see traditional TV dying within the next 3 to 5 years. I can also see websites like Hulu charging for premium content like the shows on HBO, and Shotime. I think that alone would be enough for the networks to make money if traditional TV goes moot, and everything goes online, but still, they would probably still charge for it in some way even if it is minimal.
In my opinion, cable and satellite services are for families, and when 3 or more people live in the same household, and you shouldn’t have to pay for what you don’t watch.
What do you guys think? Do you pay for your content? Are you sick of paying out the ass for crap you don’t watch? Are you going to heed my words? Leave a comment and tell us all what you think.
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