Comments on: You don't need satellite TV when times get tough

An Oakland, Calif., family knew they had to trim monthly expenses. So they took a novel, Internet-savvy approach to cutting costs while still watching their favorite programs.

[albeat99]

It's all well and good this option works for them. But if you are any kind of sports fan, giving up cable or satellite is out of the question. The only local team that doesn't show all their games exclusively on our local Fox Sports channel is the NFL franchise. The vast majority of college games are cable only as well. I could pay for various web viewing packages, but the overall viewing experience, and more importantly, quality, isn't the same.

So my cable TV-internet package is one of the few things I feel OK spending a fair amount of $ upon.

[tm_anon]

"And because some TV channels actually offer additional video content online than they do on regular TV, James said she and her husband are able to get more variety and choice than they were getting with their Dish package. For example, AT&T, her broadband provider, offers a special broadband channel called ESPN360.com.The site offers a wide variety of sports programming from college football to international soccer matches to Nascar, which aren't always shown on the cable or satellite ESPN channels. The events are often aired live and replayed at a later time. And it's all free."
I'm guessing what you meant would go something more like "if you're any kind of college sports fan" . All that means is that college sports are getting kickbacks from the cable companies. If not, then college sports teams really need to find other means of broadcasting, such as the internet. Setting up a live feed direct to a website takes a little tech know-how, but getting your schools technology class students to set it up would help to aid in the roll of higher education by giving them more experience which could be listed on resumes and most likely help in getting them jobs. It's just laziness that keeps that from happening. Spending money on cable just to see a college team play when everything else worth watching is already online doesn't seem like a very consumer savvy approach.

[keepntabs]

We are sports junkies also, and thought the same thing as you do. If you have Verizon or AT&T DSL please try out espn360.com. They have literally 100s of college football, basketball, baseball and volleyball games. They also show NBA, MLB, MLS, NFL and NASCAR.

[Neo Con]

Can we stop this nonsense about the recession having been here since December 2007? Who is the "National Bureau of Economic Research" anyway? No one knows, but they sure aren't "nonpartisan".

The recession began the 3rd quarter of 2008. Period. End of debate. In fact, since the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, and since we don't have the numbers for Q4 2008, there's no proof yet that we're in a recession. If so, it's been going on for 6 months, not 13. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and start making up new, incorrect definitions for whatever partisan political purpose the left-wing think-tank known as the "National Bureau of Economic Research" is up to.

[tm_anon]

Q1 this year, we were down. Q2 this year, we were down, Q3 this year, we were day. Q4 of last year, we were down, especially near the end. In fact, we've been steadily heading down the path to recession for the last 8 years, before that, we had a budget surplus for the country, first time that had happened in a very long time. So, using your definition and ignoring the people who'd been trying to say for the past 18 or more months that we were just in an "economic slowdown", that means that we've been in a recession for double the amount of time needed to declare officially that we were. Take your head out of the sand and look around, things are bad out there. Oh, and before you attack liberals, take a look at what conservative values did to the country and then compare that with what Clinton did in office. He got a BJ, but he ran the country right.

[Irishmanrule]

Okay this sounds really nice and all but I have more that one TV, do I only need 1 computer, can I watch a different channel in a different room, none of this is answered. I do agree with the fact the the FCC needs to start forcing the cable/dish companies to offer ala cart channel choosing. I think people need to start sending emails, letters, blogs etc. to their congressmen/women. it is rediculous that I am paying for 10 -15 foreign language channels I cannot understand.

[tm_anon]

In order to display streaming channels and surf them directly from the internet, you'd need a PC per set up. However, you would only need one internet connection that you set up into a wireless network. When I had satellite television set up, I was being charged for every box I was using, meaning if you buy a PC for every TV that's setup with satellite (if you're being charged as I was), then you're spending even less comparitively due to only having to set up one internet connection. However, I wouldn't stream multiple HD shows at the same time.

[keepntabs]

Yes, you will need multiple computers if you have more than one TV, but if your PC runs Windows Media Center and an Xbox360, you can use that as a media extender. This will allow you to connect the PC to one television, and the Xbox to another, and through the media extender capabilities, the Xbox can at least view the items that are on the media center of the computer (I am unsure if you can see the whole desktop of the PC, because I've never tried it). But you can have different computers set up in different rooms for very cheap. For our first foray into online viewing, we converted my husband's old tower Dell computer that is running XP Home into a home theater PC by inserting a used tuner card, and connecting it to the antenna. It's now located in our study/exercise/guest room, but the card was about $50, and a similar computer can be bought on Craigslist for probably the same price.

[Balloonknot]

We've done the same thing...dropped all cable premium channels for the $8.99/mo Netflix...now we get more movies, cheaper, at the touch of a button...we're never going back to cable for movies...it's a waste of money...

[dcalkinator]

My wife and I have never paid for cable in the 5 years we've been married, mostly relying on renting DVDs & Blockbuster Online. Then early this year we bought a computer and figured out how to hook it up to our plasma TV. It's completely changed the way we use our TV, and thanks to hulu and similar sites, we're about 2 steps away from canceling Blockbuster and just going with online content.

That said, I second an earlier comment about bandwidth caps...the cable/telco companies are hip us saving money at their expense and are waging an intense battle to reclaim that money through extra caps/fees lumped onto broadband service fees. For now, the only major provider not doing this (or threatening to do this) is Verizon, but unfortunately they aren't available in my area.

Definitely a trend worth following...great article!

[tekwiz4u]

This article is great. Satellite TV can be very expensive, and wish they offered 'ala carte' channels for better flexibility. I REFUSE to pay extra for DVR ($5), LOCAL (which I can use a converter), and HD (which should be free since they are a digital service?). I remember i paid close to $80 a month, and that seems too expensive just to watch tv. And out of 200+ channels, I only watched probably 10-15 of them. I wish they can change their policies and offer better packages because the internet TV is around the corner and they need to be more competitive.

[fdunn3]

Excellent article. More of these with technical details suchas this would be appreciated.

Even if they don't have to do with IT.

Thanks for the article.

I don't mean to be mean here but don't you think that most people knew there was a recession when gasoline was $4/gallon, and the prices of everything that depended on fuel (which is most everything) was going up while your paycheck wasn't?

Kudos to them for working out a satisfactory solution for themselves. I to have cut ALL extras on my landline except unlisted number since I too only dial long distance with my cell phone.
The rare case is when I have to FAX something.

[keepntabs]

Try using a call back service like Jajah or Jaxtr, and you won't call long distance on your landline ever; even for faxes. We now have the measured rate service, and pay only $5.70 (not including all of the telcom taxes) for $3.00 worth of calls (and we NEVER use the allotment).

[jerrymacGP]

This approach is all well and good if you live in a community with a generous supply of high-quality over-the-air broadcasters. My family and I do not. Where we live (western Canada), there are only two over-the air broadcasters: a fuzzy, snowy public broadcaster (the CBC), and a fuzzier, snowier private broadcaster (CTV). So, we have three options: one cable company or one of two satellite services. Then when after years of crappy signal quality with analogue-only cable they hiked their price 15%, we ditched them for an all-digital satellite package that cost about the same as cable.

[AppleSuxLeo]

The Windows Vista computer came with an integrated TV tuner, a High Definition Multimedia Interface cable for carrying high-definition video, and an embedded Blu-Ray/DVD player. The PC, which is only about the size of an old VCR, hooks directly to her TV and can be programmed to act as a DVR recording over-the-air programming that is received from the rooftop antenna. And because most of the Web content is on-demand anyway, James said she can watch whatever she wants, whenever she wants it.
None of which is possible on a Mac out of the box , except possibly Netflix streaming...and Mac users can only "watch instantly" using Microsoft`s Silverlight.

[LinuxRules]

OK fancast was mentioned in the article, I just tried that site and it SUCKS, I could not get movies to play and of the ones that did play were being relinked from HULU and played on fancast site. WHAT A BUNCH OF THIEVES! Do not use this site.

[jmcintire]

I'd like to know where you can get a HP Pavilion Slimline with blu-ray, a tv tuner with DVR capability, and a HDMI interface for just $600!!!

[keepntabs]

This past September I was reading another CNet article, and the writer always provides information about hot sales. In that article he posted that HP was having a 40% sale (and provided the promo code), and stated how to get that configuration for $599. I jumped on it right away, because I had been looking at getting a slimline for about 6 months, but was waiting to see if it would go on sale; the best price for a preconfigured model that sold in retail outlets system was $899 at that time. In addition to reading CNet News regularly, I also check out dealnews.com.

[noway32]

I don't know where all of you are living, but here in SE TX, I use Time Warner Cable, everythin cost's me $141....phone to call anywhere, high speed internet turbo...makes DSL look like a turtle in a race with the rabbit, HD TV, for all channels without any adapters.....now if I want to watch special movies, I am charged an extra $4 or $5.....Never have to pay for any extra equiptment.....without going to pay-per-view, I have 99 channels, all different......that should be enough for a young 77 year bold boy

[chuck_whealton]

This lady and her husband were very wise. If I can do it with an antenna, I'll be doing it.

I'll keep the high speed Internet just for the same purposes the James family did, but I will ditch the cable television in a heartbeat, if possible.

In our case, something many people don't realize is that Comcast is slowly moving everything from analog to digital, not to be confused with the over-the-air analog to digital conversion.

Once they do that, we'll be FORCED to rent a set top box for every television in the house IF we want to get all the channels we SHOULD be getting outside of the standard, local lineup that they broadcast in clear QAM. I have 7 - 8 televisions in my house. I've read pricing from $5.00 - $7.00 per STB per month. This is a huge stealth increase and I'll be darned if I'm going to pay it. I'll go the route the James family did and ditch cable television altogether, if I can get an antenna that gets the the over-the-air channels. Unfortunately, the broadcast towers are 40+ miles away, so it won't be as easy as it should be.

[xggrand]

I have looked at quite a bit of cable TV over the past few years (visiting family and friends...), I sincerely do not understand why television is a big deal for anyone?!? I am by no means a Luddite - I make my living supporting bleeding-edge technology (don't think for a moment that I am not conflicted with that situation). I feel that there are far too many problems in this world, and that I am a part of that problem (simply living in this day and age makes me a part of it).

I often wonder if my level of concern for this world would decrease to a comfortable pace if I were to succumb to the pablum that I have witnessed on the airwaves? Should I kick back, crack open a brewski and melt into the big game on the tube? Today, I had to admit to my brother that I seriously thought a news headline this morning was referring to a professional bowler from the 1970's (it was actually about some Pro-Bowl game -football, I would imagine by the time of year). I am not very old, yet I can not find a good reason to consume "entertainment" the way it is being marketed. "Entertainment" is like eating Cheetoes and McDonalds - it fills the corners, but has no nourishing value. Experience is what feeds each of us.

Life is a reality show. Turn off the TV. Read a book. Talk to people. Listen to people. LISTEN to music (don't let it paper your walls). Consider what you have experienced.


My love goes with you...

[JCPayne]

Keep in mind though in many cases providers like DirecTV make their customers sign 2 year contracts at the time of sign up. Breaking that contract will result in a penalty fee just like a Mobile Phone contract. I agree though a lot of the channels on Sat. are fluff... They especially have become worse on DirecTV since LibertyMedia and Fox took over. Both implemented a lot of no-name stations that obviously were side deals cut with friends/partners of theirs and don't have very good content. For one thing they have a lot of paid/home shopping channels now.

[JennLynskey]

Great article, Ms. Reardon. I agree that you often do have to spend money initally to save money in the long run. I was an early adopter of the roku from Netflix ($99) to watch the streaming content. I got rid of 2 premium channels and the accompanying on demand services ($30 month-roku already paid for itself.) Sure, to really save money I could have just cancelled the channels without the roku, but I still wanted the convenience of instant access to movies on my TV. I believe you can now use the Xbox to get streaming netflix, so if you already have an Xbox and netflix, you can do this for free.
I'm also still using my old TV (it's almost 10 years old) instead of upgrading to a flat screen.

[iff2mastamatt]

My cable is $15 a month with comcast. Beat that! It's only 79 channels, but as long as I get the basics and ESPN, NatGeo, History, fox, I'm ok.

[Mikeatle]

Seems to me that the real lesson here is about frugality, which is something to which we can all aspire regardless of the economy.

[heuberta]

We have Dish with an outdoor antenna for locals. I was told by Dish that we would lose the ability to use our antenna when everyone has to take the local channels through Dish in February. If that is so, then we will cancel Dish. The over the air HD quality is much better than the TURBOHD on Dish. DISH, this year, also dropped the VOOM channels which had exceptional quality picture and good programing. There is nothing exceptional on DISH now. We are between Milwaukee and Chicago, so we are able to pick up both cities over the air. Locals from Dish would only cover certain stations in the Milwaukee area. We would miss some of the sports on DISH, but if we can get sports from HULU or some other service we will save $90 per month and see a better quality picture.
We have a 103" inch screen with a three year old 720P front projector, so the quality issue is probably much more noticeable than with a smaller screen.

[Ihateripoff]

I do not like Ripoffs by Cable and Telephone companies I want to get what I pay for. I do not want contracts and get trapped by the companies for no reasons.
Did you know some Cable company charges a bill in advance.
I want to pay with freedom and do not want the contracts where i get stuck for 2 years with the Cable companies with their fine prints.
I think eventually the consumers if unite, Cable companies and phone companies have to learn what is right. No 2 year contarcts and better service no RIPOFFS by fine print and contracts.