I was reading an article on PBS.org which encourages us to dump the cable and satellite companies, to move towards getting your programming through the Internet, so I thought I’d explore this a bit with this entry.
Part of the reason for this author to encourage the abandonment of the service providers is the bills. The author cites a study by Centris showing that the average digital cable bill was nearly $75 last year, and the average satellite bill was $69.
There are several reasons for the rise in the bills ranging from programming costing more to cost of doing business rising, no one thing can be pointed to as the culprit in this case.
In the current economic times, 8% of US households were likely to cancel their pay TV during the 3rd quarter of 2009. If you match this with another study, regarding landlines (20% of all US households have gone to wireless only phones), then you see that cable companies are losing their revenue streams from all angles.
If you are one of the 8% that are dumping your pay TV service, here are some options for you to watch TV through the ‘net:
- Netflix – They have their own set top box, which hooks to the Internet, and streams your programming. They also are embedded in Tivo, so you can download and stream from Tivo to watch your favorite shows
- Hulu – A website that lets you search for the show, and watch it with limited commercials on your web browser
- Apple TV – lets you download your favorite shows to a computer hooked to your TV
Some things to think about before you drop your pay TV services include: What shows do you like to watch, where can you get those shows online, in a timely fashion (nothing sucks more than waiting 2 weeks to see the show that everyone is talking about), whether those sources require you to pay to watch them.
With that, I’m off to celebrate the holiday.