I quit TV

TV sucks right? We've all said it, or at least thought it. A lot. Especially on a weekday off when it's rainy and we find ourselves flipping through 70+ channels of crap every 15 minutes in hopes that maybe something good is hiding out there. Sure, we settle on Discovery or History Channel...but there's only so many UFO encounters and WWII stories a man can take....and let's face it, not every week is Shark Week. Discovery is smart, they save that for a special time of year so it's not old-hat like everything else.

Our local monopoly is Charter. I think of Charter as the empty-nesters of the cable suppliers. They aren't on the edge of what's new in the world of technology...but they hear things through their oldest son, Comcast, who is off at college but returns to do laundry and tell them about some new stuff they've learned. Now, Comcast isn't all that great, he's kind of a selfish prick who's always looking to swindle and make an easy buck for beer money...or to pay off future lawsuits due to spying/throttling.

Now then, I had a deal with Charter since we moved into our house...we had established trust that I'd give them $60 a month in exchange for cable TV and internet. I had a few problems along the way, for the most part, they took care of what arose....what they didn't fix, I figured out how to work around myself (thank you google). Now our agreement was nearing an end, and being the savvy consumer I am, I tried to call my old buddy Charter and see if we could continue on the path we had begun. The person I spoke with had an attitude from the start and when I tried to explain I only had 3 weeks until our agreement ended and I wanted to be sure it continued at least one more year, I was denied. The problem was that she was not willing to negotiate before my contract was up. To me, that means that I'd be forking out $110 a month if we did not reach an agreement at that juncture and I told her as such and she didn't understand why I wouldn't just wait a month and take my chances. So I went ahead and canceled. Bye bye Charter.

I tossed around the idea of direct TV...meh. Not really worth it. Same channel line-up as cable pretty much. And they don't offer any internet, and being the dork I am, I need high speed internet more than anything.

I still have my Netflix, and lo and behold, they were launching a new streaming video service. Perfect timing! They have a nice little box you can buy for $100, and you can stream your choice of 10,000 titles. They have about 80,000 in all, but as they get the service going, there will be more added to the streaming list. Right now, it's pretty simple and not-so-good offering, but I've got a movie collection of about 500 DVDs and I haven't watched much more than half of them. So while Netflix get's the service up and running, we've been watching a lot of movies at night and aren't paying anything extra. I even degraded my plan from 3 movies at a time to 2 movies at a time. The streaming option is free and included in my rental plan at no additional charge. Boo-yah!

Now, we have entertainment covered, but we still need internets. I tossed around the ideal of naked DSL - it's not as sexy as it sounds...it's DSL service without paying for a phone line. But then I talked to Sam about getting a phone line and she was for it. We have a cell plan for both of us on Tmobile, but she never uses her phone...she uses mine when we're together, or else she'll use the phone at her work...when she's home, I'm usually there or she's asleep. It made sense to get a home phone and pay about $15 a month for it, rather than $30 a month for her cell. So come November, we're canceling our family shared plan. I'm paying about $40 a month for DSL and $15 for the land line. $5 less than what I was already paying with Charter, not to mention that once we cancel her portion of the cell plan in 3 months, I'll be saving an additional $30 a month.

Next time you utter those words "TV sucks"....how much do you really mean it? Call up your cable co and see if they're willing to negotiate. If not, give 'em the boot.