Finally caved in and ordered cable after going a year without.

[Ace Nova]

So today the cable guy came over and hooked up cable in my apartment for the first time....I've been living here for a year....

I intentionally wanted to see how well I would do without it when I first moved in...and to tell you the truth, up until recently, I didn't miss it all that much. I was fine with Netflix and the channels I was getting from my HD antenna.

About a month ago, I purchased a 60 inch HD TV and realized that Netflix and the regular local channels wouldn't cut it anymore... especially with football season in progress.

Last week I caved in and called the cable company....they also upgraded my internet from 10 MB to 30....got a sweet deal...went from paying $45 just for internet to paying $110 for faster internet and cable w/HD channels. It's worth it, imo.

So have any of you gone a long period of time without cable or satellite, etc?

Edited October 22, 2014 by Kasanova King

[Apollo]

If it wasn't for sports we wouldn't have cable.

TV is great and entertaining - if you don't let it consume too much time, imo. I like watching Gordon Ramsey scream at young chefs and people trying to find gold in Alaska, a well as sports and occasional history shows. But tv can become a crutch that sucks away soooo much time.

We have no-TV days at our house, especially on weekends. It really forces you to not be lazy and to find stuff to entertain.

Last night we put the kids to bed and curled up and watched Shark Tank. Sometimes I think it's perfectly OK to let your brain decompress by watching mindless tv shows.

[bran]

i had comcast(xfinity) which in my opinion is the worst company i have ever had to deal with. now i went through a small cable company who is partnered with direct tv and it is great and cheap. i basically just watch sports and usually just use streams to watch my sports teams if they are not on the channels i get.

[luciusfunk]

A year? Shit I haven't had cable in four years. I went nine years as a kid/teenager without cable.

[bran]

i went about 3 years without cable once in my early teens, just had a huge antenna outside to watch the local channels and fox. at a certain time just before the 4pm kick off on sundays you had to turn the antenna a slight tick to the right with pliers to get fox to come in

[Val22]

Wow, I have had cable for a long time. First in NY and in Texas since we moved here.

I don't think I could live or watch tv without cable.

I have all the premium channels and all the sports channels too.

We have 3 tvs so my husband can watch his shows and I watch mine and we still dvr shows too.

TV is important to our lives.

[magisme]

I didn't have cable all last year. And I didn't have it for about four of the previous five years. If it weren't for sports I wouldn't bother.

[Black Sabbath]

Let the comcast hate flow through you all.

[Dan H.]

I'm haven't had cable in five years

[Coma16]

When I was in grade school I felt sorry for the kids who didn't have cable.

[dalsh327]

How long are you locked into the contract?

[bran]

Let the comcast hate flow through you all.

[arnold layne]

Last year in college I went a whole year without even basic cable, so no television whatsoever.

I missed it.

I don't give a shit about cable but it's nice to put on the television for some background noise and it serves a purpose music cannot fill.

Luckily I still had internet so I could feed my real addiction.

I didn't have cable all last year. And I didn't have it for about four of the previous five years. If it weren't for sports I wouldn't bother.

You may as well get cable though because we used our lack of cable as an excuse to go to the bars and blow thirty bucks on beer and wings every weekend.

Thirty bucks four times a week vs sharing a cable bill. You do the math.

[Ace Nova]

How long are you locked into the contract?

No contract, it's with Brighthouse Networks.... and my price is guaranteed for a year. After my Direct TV fiasco, I won't do contracts again. They raised my bill about 250% in a year's time, then charged me close to $300 cancel. No more contracts for me....not for TV, anyway.

You may as well get cable though because we used our lack of cable as an excuse to go to the bars and blow thirty bucks on beer and wings every weekend.

Thirty bucks four times a week vs sharing a cable bill. You do the math.

This was actually part of my reasoning for it as well. Realized that I was getting somewhat bored around the apartment and basically went out and blew an absurd amount of money over the last few months....enough to probably pay for a year's worth of cable....so yeah, figured cable should at least slow the bleeding....

Edited October 23, 2014 by Kasanova King

[bran]

How long are you locked into the contract?

No contract, it's with Brighthouse Networks.... and my price is guaranteed for a year. After my Direct TV fiasco, I won't do contracts again. They raised my bill about 250% in a year's time, then charged me close to $300 cancel. No more contracts for me....not for TV, anyway.

You may as well get cable though because we used our lack of cable as an excuse to go to the bars and blow thirty bucks on beer and wings every weekend.

Thirty bucks four times a week vs sharing a cable bill. You do the math.

This was actually part of my reasoning for it as well. Realized that I was getting somewhat bored around the apartment and basically went out and blew an absurd amount of money over the last few months....enough to probably pay for a year's worth of cable....so yeah, figured cable should at least slow the bleeding....

i had brighthouse cable in florida, and they were a great company. i got it for about 2 years before i moved out of florida i had just extended basic but they included hbo for me for something like 5 dollars.

[Ace Nova]

How long are you locked into the contract?

No contract, it's with Brighthouse Networks.... and my price is guaranteed for a year. After my Direct TV fiasco, I won't do contracts again. They raised my bill about 250% in a year's time, then charged me close to $300 cancel. No more contracts for me....not for TV, anyway.

You may as well get cable though because we used our lack of cable as an excuse to go to the bars and blow thirty bucks on beer and wings every weekend.

Thirty bucks four times a week vs sharing a cable bill. You do the math.

This was actually part of my reasoning for it as well. Realized that I was getting somewhat bored around the apartment and basically went out and blew an absurd amount of money over the last few months....enough to probably pay for a year's worth of cable....so yeah, figured cable should at least slow the bleeding....

i had brighthouse cable in florida, and they were a great company. i got it for about 2 years before i moved out of florida i had just extended basic but they included hbo for me for something like 5 dollars.

Out of all the cable/satellite tv companies I've had, they've probably been the best. (knock on wood, ).

[downzy]

I've been without cable/satellite since December of last year. Bought an HD antenna and get 10-13 channels over the air. I buy my parents a yearly Netflix subscription every Christmas but my fiancé and I use it as well from time to time. The only real sports I watch is baseball and for that we have a friend's cable account user name and password, which allows us to stream Jays games over the Internt for free. For post season games I buy the mlb.tv package for $25.

The best part is I don't even pay for my internet service. My fiancé had an account with a third-party ISP but we canceled with them after they dicked us around when we moved and they wouldn't swallow the installation charge after three no shows by the technicians. But they can't turn our service off because it has to be done from the company they buy their service from. So we're now coming up to our eleventh month of free Internet service, saving us close to $500 so far.

For anyone wanting to save on their internet service, some times it pays to just cancel and hope the company drags it's feet. It's worked out for us so far.

[bran]

I've been without cable/satellite since December of last year. Bought an HD antenna and get 10-13 channels over the air. I buy my parents a yearly Netflix subscription every Christmas but my fiancé and I use it as well from time to time. The only real sports I watch is baseball and for that we have a friend's cable account user name and password, which allows us to stream Jays games over the Internt for free. For post season games I buy the mlb.tv package for $25.

The best part is I don't even pay for my internet service. My fiancé had an account with a third-party ISP but we canceled with them after they dicked us around when we moved and they wouldn't swallow the installation charge after three no shows by the technicians. But they can't turn our service off because it has to be done from the company they buy their service from. So we're now coming up to our eleventh month of free Internet service, saving us close to $500 so far.

For anyone wanting to save on their internet service, some times it pays to just cancel and hope the company drags it's feet. It's worked out for us so far.

that is awesome about the free internet. i once got free cable for about a year. i moved into an apartment decided to check to see if the cable was active and it was, and no one ever came to shut it off

[downzy]

I've been without cable/satellite since December of last year. Bought an HD antenna and get 10-13 channels over the air. I buy my parents a yearly Netflix subscription every Christmas but my fiancé and I use it as well from time to time. The only real sports I watch is baseball and for that we have a friend's cable account user name and password, which allows us to stream Jays games over the Internt for free. For post season games I buy the mlb.tv package for $25.

The best part is I don't even pay for my internet service. My fiancé had an account with a third-party ISP but we canceled with them after they dicked us around when we moved and they wouldn't swallow the installation charge after three no shows by the technicians. But they can't turn our service off because it has to be done from the company they buy their service from. So we're now coming up to our eleventh month of free Internet service, saving us close to $500 so far.

For anyone wanting to save on their internet service, some times it pays to just cancel and hope the company drags it's feet. It's worked out for us so far.

that is awesome about the free internet. i once got free cable for about a year. i moved into an apartment decided to check to see if the cable was active and it was, and no one ever came to shut it off

It is pretty sweet when you get one over a cable/phone/utility company consider how often they screw their customers.

Your story reminds me of an opposite experience my friend had (and he's the kind of guy that invites ridicule). In college, he and two buddies rented an apartment near the university at the end of our first year. My friend's two roommates moved back home over the summer for work and didn't move in until September. But my buddy stayed in the apartment from May. He assumed there was no cable so he set up his television with its rabbit ears (this was 1999 or 2000) and watched the one channel he received over the air all summer until his roommates came back in September for the new year. That's when my friend called up the cable company who sent a technician over to install cable in the apartment. But the technician told my buddy that the apartment was already hooked up, and now he was going to start receiving a monthly bill. Had my friend checked when he moved in four months earlier he could have had free cable the entire time AND avoided paying monthly until the cable company clued in (which they never do). Classic!

[dalsh327]

I've been without cable/satellite since December of last year. Bought an HD antenna and get 10-13 channels over the air. I buy my parents a yearly Netflix subscription every Christmas but my fiancé and I use it as well from time to time. The only real sports I watch is baseball and for that we have a friend's cable account user name and password, which allows us to stream Jays games over the Internt for free. For post season games I buy the mlb.tv package for $25.

The best part is I don't even pay for my internet service. My fiancé had an account with a third-party ISP but we canceled with them after they dicked us around when we moved and they wouldn't swallow the installation charge after three no shows by the technicians. But they can't turn our service off because it has to be done from the company they buy their service from. So we're now coming up to our eleventh month of free Internet service, saving us close to $500 so far.

For anyone wanting to save on their internet service, some times it pays to just cancel and hope the company drags it's feet. It's worked out for us so far.

that is awesome about the free internet. i once got free cable for about a year. i moved into an apartment decided to check to see if the cable was active and it was, and no one ever came to shut it off

It is pretty sweet when you get one over a cable/phone/utility company consider how often they screw their customers.

Your story reminds me of an opposite experience my friend had (and he's the kind of guy that invites ridicule). In college, he and two buddies rented an apartment near the university at the end of our first year. My friend's two roommates moved back home over the summer for work and didn't move in until September. But my buddy stayed in the apartment from May. He assumed there was no cable so he set up his television with its rabbit ears (this was 1999 or 2000) and watched the one channel he received over the air all summer until his roommates came back in September for the new year. That's when my friend called up the cable company who sent a technician over to install cable in the apartment. But the technician told my buddy that the apartment was already hooked up, and now he was going to start receiving a monthly bill. Had my friend checked when he moved in four months earlier he could have had free cable the entire time AND avoided paying monthly until the cable company clued in (which they never do). Classic!

I always checked to see if I had cable when I've helped move or moved into a new place, and usually did. You'll get free wifi if you live near a bunch of businesses and sometimes their service is faster, there's also hacks to boost the signal.