If you know me, you know that I am a TV addict. It started in childhood. Instead of Barney or other kid shows, I grew up watching classic/cult classic movies like Back to the Future, Terminator, and Leprechaun with my older brother and sister. In first grade I had a strict TV schedule that I adhered to daily: Brady Bunch until 4pm, Saved by the Bell 4-5pm, and "Hour House" from 5-6pm. (AKA one hour of Full House on WGN with the promo song to the tune of the 80's classic "Our House" by Madness). Around 6 there was a break for dinner and then it was on to prime time viewing. By third grade, my favorite show was Melrose Place and I was averaging 7 hours of TV per day including one hour BEFORE school. When VH1 introduced the World Series of Pop Culture in 2006, I was upset that I was not able to round up a suitable team to audition for season 2.
So how, you might ask, does someone with my television repertoire, go cable free? It's simple.
- What Do You Watch?
- Everything that you watch. Between Netlix, HuluPlus, and Amazon Prime we can stream just about everything we were already watching for around $20/month in subscriptions. And that's if you include Amazon Prime which we would pay for even WITHOUT the available streaming (but that's a whole other blog post). We also have an HBO Go account, but only because another stream savvy couple shared their username and password which can be used and shared with others on multiple devices as long as that person has a regular paid subscription to HBO (good deal if you have a group of friends that all want to go in for the subscription).
- How Does It Work?
- Using AppleTV and Roku (or you could use the new smart TV's) we can stream ungodly amounts of tv shows, movies, and more on demand. Sure, you have to wait for some shows to come to Amazon Prime or Netflix, generally about 1 season behind what is currently on air in cable. But with HuluPlus, you do get to watch many shows in "real" TV time. Sometimes I do miss my immediate gratification of getting to watching The League or The Walking Dead in "real" TV time, but then I just put on the show I am currently obsessed with and able to watch marathon style on Netflix and forget all about it! How's that for instant gratification? In 8 months or so, I'll be able to watch American Horror Story all at once instead of waiting for whatever night it is on each week. When I hear someone talking about the current season of It's Always Sunny in the cafeteria in work, I just tune them out and enjoy thinking about how much money I'm saving each month and how smart I am!
- No More Mindless TV
- What is also nice, is there is no more "mindless TV" in our house. On cable, when our show ends on the DVR, I would be immediately sucked in to 30 minutes of Say Yes to the Dress or Love It Or List It, or some other show that I've probably seen before. Even if I haven't seen that exact episode, let's be serious, I've seen it before. And Love It or List It is really only about the last 5 of the 42 minutes they drag it out anyway, right? Now, if we are watching something, it's intentional, because when our show ends, YOU have to take the action to put on the new show.
- Convenience
- With Apple Airplay, anything that's on my iPad is available on the Apple TV and visa versa. I can start a movie downstairs and then finish it in bed, on the go, anywhere, with my iPad.
- What About DVR?
- Yes, someone actually asked me this question. When you are streaming everything, it's always ready when you want it. Why would I need to record it? It's already there! Sure, some network shows that you watch on HuluPlus or directly on the network's website (I'm thinking like ABC's the Bachelor for example) then you do have to watch about 5 commercials through the hour of streaming. Sure it's a bit annoying since I've been living in the commercial free DVR world for about 6 years. But again, we're talking about 5 commercials vs. the massive savings of not paying for cable. I'll sit through them.
- What About Kid Shows?
- Streaming is great for kids! I have every season of Dora, SuperWhy, Mickey Mouse Club House, and more on demand. I don't have to tune to Disney or Nick Jr only to be disappointed that Little Bear is on (Johanna doesn't mind it, but I can't take that show. It has to be the worst children's programming ever!) I can immediately go to Johanna's favorite shows, and more specifically, her favorite episodes. At just under 20 months, she knows how to use the Roku remote to flip through her favorite Netflix shows. She's still not sure how to get it to play, but when she arrows to the show she wants, she'll point at it, bring me the remote, and say "yesssss, mama?" A child after my own heart! Except for the days when I have to watch Mickey Mouse Road Rally 4 times in one day!
- What About Movie Channels and Movies on Demand Same Day as Rental?
- With services like Vudu and rentals from iTunes, we can stream most movies same day as rental for a nominal fee. It may be slightly more than on Demand fees for new movies or old fashioned red box, but with the mountain of entertainment available with our regular streaming subscriptions, we don't use it often. And even if we did use it often, it would definitely be worth the convenience of NOT wamping Johanna into her car seat to stand with my nose hairs freezing at a Redbox outside of Jewel!
- How Do You Know It's Available?
- How do you know to go to Hulu, or Netflix? What shows are available where? I've found that most shows and movies span multiple services and most often, things that are popular are available on all streaming services. If I'm looking for a more obscure movie or I'm not sure and don't want to take the time to search each one, I go to my "CanIStream.It" App. I type in the title and it instantly tells me what streaming service it's available on. So far, only one movie that I've wanted to watch was NOT available somewhere. (and incidentally, it was a movie we'd seen MANY times, Dumb and Dumber. Not a huge loss. I actually think I have it on VHS somewhere in a closet...if we still had a VCR...)
- But What About Shows That You Can't Stream?
- Haven't run into that much, usually it's just the waiting since we are delayed in our watch time compared to "real" TV time. More importantly, I actually find myself watching better quality shows now. My DVR was set to record a lot of reality shows that I continued to watch simply because they were there. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good trashy reality show. And there's definitely a time and place when I need a Keeping Up with the Kardashians fix. But to watch Bad Girls Club, Snooki & JWoww, The 40th season of the Real World, and more on a regular basis instead of quality shows that friends and family have recommended to us simply because they auto record on my DVR was just not working for me anymore. Maybe I am showing my age, or maybe it's because now with a child I have less free time of my own, but I want to make better use of my TV watching time. In just the short time we've been cable free, I've been able to watch marathons of many of the quality shows people have been telling us to watch for years like Downton Abby, How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, and Revenge (not sure how quality that last one is, but it's certainly a step up from Bad Girls Club!). But our list of quality shows to stream keeps growing and growing. Currently on the to-watch list are Breaking Bad, Homeland, Shameless, The Wire, and Scandal. Oh and by streaming we also get access to Netflix exclusive shows like Orange is the New Black, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!, and House of Cards, also in our queue.
- What About Live Events and Shows?
- For live events like the Academy Awards, Grammys, VMA's etc. there are easy solutions. We missed the VMA's last Sunday night, but I certainly didn't feel like I missed anything. My Facebook newsfeed offered me a play by play. I knew the same time as everyone else that Miley was acting scandalous and Justin Timberlake's performance "rocked" but the reunion with N*SYNC was too short and they looked old and out of touch next to him. Within hours of the show finishing I was able to stream these "must see" moments on MTV.com. All I missed was wasted time watching the rest of the fluff. And if social media outlets weren't enough, you could always find a way to invite yourself over to friend's house for an Oscar party. Offer to bring food and beer.
- What About Sporting Events?
- This is the one area of slight contention in our household, but an easy compromise. With NHL GameCenter, MLB.TV, and other streaming subscriptions available for low one time fees as well as websites like Streamhunter, you can still watch your favorite sporting events. The only professional sport not offering streaming options currently is the NFL. This is where the compromise comes in. My husband is a high school football coach and a member of multiple fantasy football leagues. I am even the commissioner of our "football wives" fantasy league. We are a football household. Must. Watch. Football. The solution, is to simply pay for the basic cable connection for the 5-month football season. We could just do rabbit ears and pick up the basic networks where most of the games are, but then we would miss many Thursday night games and would not have access to DVR and HD quality for the games. And for my husband, this is simply NOT an option. Must. Watch. Replays. You may be saying, but how have you cut the cord then, you still have cable. Let me reiterate that we have the BASIC cable connection. Not expanded basic. This option includes networks, home shopping network, and local public access channels only. We have a total of about 25 channels from September through the Superbowl (maybe shorter because once it's the playoffs, we usually watch with friends anyway, see above about inviting yourself over to a friends house) Trust me, the cord is cut.
I foresee in 3-5 years almost everyone will be moving the same way. Cable companies are soon going to be obsolete. They have to see this coming. I wonder what their plan is? My recommendation to remain relevant would be to offer networks individually, the same way your purchase a streaming subscription. Each household could build their own personalized guide. With current cable/satellite, you still have your favorite core channels, mine were TNT, TBS, USA, Bravo, E!, MTV, VH1, A&E, HGTV, TLC, AMC, Comedy Central, FX, and Lifetime. I would've gladly paid to have a cable offering with just these channels. Similar to how iTunes reinvented music with listeners only buying their favorite songs instead of the whole CD, cable companies should allow customers to only buy their favorite channels via subscription. I'm sure the cable companies have contracts with these networks, so it would be difficult to coordinate with a lot of push and shove and contract end dates etc. But wouldn't it be worth it for some contract fees and negotiations vs that revenue stream eventually dying out? At least Comcast and some others offer Internet connections, so they will be able to continue down that road. But satellite providers like DirecTV or Dish Network, what is their plan? Cable/Satellite is the new "home phone". It's dying. And I'm enjoying being an early adopter.
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