Alternatives to Cable TV?

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:15 pm

Interested to know if any of you have experience with cable companies (or similar) that offer a pay per channel service? I've heard that Sen. John McCain is pushing legislation to allow this to become widespread. And I could swear I heard about a company who offered it here in the Salt Lake City region not too long back. But all of my internet searches have come up empty handed.

Looking for a service that allows me to pick the channels I want to watch, and not pay for the 300 others full of mindless drivel, and infomercials.

Anyone?

Thanks!

Bri~

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:20 pm

We have something like that. You have to buy a bundle, but then you can buy additional channels one at a time from the same price range at a grossly inflated price. So you might get a bundle of 12 channels for ten bucks a month, and each additional channel you choose is 2 or 3 dollars each. It is nowhere near as equitable as buying their bundles.

djm

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:07 pm

I was paying almost seventy a month here for the "expanded" digital cable plus whatever. I watched maybe twelve channels on occassion, and perhaps five regularly. Even at five a piece, it would be well worth it to me most likely. Just wondering what companies offer that here in the western US.

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:15 pm

Depending on where you are, if you don't have an ATSC capable TV you may be able to get a LOT more channels just by upgrading your TV.

Currently, all TVs >25 inches in the US must be ATSC capable; by march of 2007 that extends to all TVs.

No per-channel premium services, but in most major urban areas these days you can get about twice as many digital channels as analog.

And if you're on a mixed analog/digital cable system, an ATSC-capable TV may double or triple the number of channels you get there.

Of course, if you want premium channels you're pretty much stuck paying for them, not matter what kind of TV you have

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:23 pm

Right figured as such. I'm interested in stuff like all the Discoveries, the history and learning chanel, science etc. also the cartoon ones for my daughter (OK sometimes for me too)

.

More than that isn't of much interest. can't really stand local or network programming at all. Have a DVD player, but the cost of a new movie every night is not really practical. And there is some stuff like local news that is good to catch up on from time to time.

Coffee · Post by **Coffee** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 11:32 pm

My alternative to cable tv is no tv. So far I'm pretty happy with that. I do miss a few shows sometimes. (By the way, anyone know where to get Good Eats on DVD? Can't find it on the food network website or Amazon.)

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:21 am

Brian Lee wrote:Have a DVD player, but the cost of a new movie every night is not really practical. And there is some stuff like local news that is good to catch up on from time to time.

I was thinking Netflicks would be great for the 10 cd set of The Prisoner alone.

We don't have a TV though, just a laptop with a DVD rom.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:30 am

I.D.10-t wrote:
Brian Lee wrote:Have a DVD player, but the cost of a new movie every night is not really practical. And there is some stuff like local news that is good to catch up on from time to time.
I was thinking Netflicks would be great for the 10 cd set of The Prisoner alone.

We don't have a TV though, just a laptop with a DVD rom.

The Prisoner rocks. I watched a couple episodes awhile back at a friends. Now I want them all.

I watch TV very seldom. Usually flip on the Weather Channel for a few minutes. My wife is the TV nut.

Lately she's been watching Cold Case Files. I like that one too.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:22 am

Brian,
I don't watch T.V. much so I don't use cable or any other service, but my folks down in South Jordan pay about $30 per month for their DirectTV what-not, and channels like Discovery (and many of the Discovery spin-off channels), TLC, History Channel (and the spin-off Biography Channel), SPEED, National Geographic Channel (and their spin-off travel-what-not channel), the Wings channel (but I think it's called something else nowadays), Sci-Fi channel, BBC-A and several others of the kind that are included in their basic package.

OnlyAnEgg · Post by **OnlyAnEgg** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:01 am

Cofaidh wrote:My alternative to cable tv is no tv.

I agree completely. Although, I get a few odd looks (You mean you don't watch Survivor?), I'm pretty happy without tv.

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:37 am

Here we have cable and satelite but we are about to get fiber optic service that will really up the bandwidth. We have thought many times about getting rid of cable and putting up an antenna. We don't watch the major networks but we do watch the Maryland Public Television and other educational type programs. We get the BritComs on MPT. Those are the main entertainment shows we watch. I think the Last of the Summer Wine is hilarious.

Ron

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:23 pm

We have Dish tv. I've been pestering my husband for French channels but he says we'd need a second dish on the roof for that.

Honestly, the whole thing would be pretty much a total waste without TiVo.
I LOVE my TiVo. It remembers to record my programs if they've been off for a few months and just back on.
I have classes 3 evenings a week but with TiVo I can watch what I want when I can and do it all electronically.

Any thing I watch on otherwise unrecorded tv has an automatic record up to 30 minutes if I need to back track to figure things out. This comes in handy with my hearing disability. Though I can still hear tones I've lost some of the consonants (confuse B, P, T). Being able to back track is a lot easier for me than putting on my glasses to read subtitles (of closed captions).

mrosenlof · Post by **mrosenlof** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:44 am

Rabbit ears, and throwing the whole thing off the roof are the best alternatives that come to mind for me.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 10:25 am

I have cable, but I am only interested in a couple of channels. I admit I really do not watch much tellevision as there simply isn't anything but poop on it. Some Discovery, some Sci-Fi and during the baseball season, Cubs games on WGN. Having grown up in Minnesota, however, I ought to be watching more Twins games. But, I don't think I have the heart to since Kirby passed away.

What boggles my mind is how anyone can rationalize the cost of cable or any other non-local programming. I'd like to see program specific options when folks sign up for Special TV, but I cannot see how it can work world wide... at least not as of yet.

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:29 am

mrosenlof wrote:Rabbit ears, and throwing the whole thing off the roof are the best alternatives that come to mind for me.

Years back, when my kids were still children, our tv broke and we a couple months without it.

It was during a visit to my parents that my father brought it to my attention that he'd never seen my kids so facinated by everything on tv as they had been during that visit.

They couldn't take their eyes off it.
Neither could I.
I commented that our tv was broken and I was trying to see how long we could go without it.

That's when my brother commented that it was only one voice of the media and asked me what other voices was I thinking of phasing out of my life; books, radio, news papers, theatre?

Yeah, I get a lot more channels than I usually watch with the satellite package we buy
but I don't think of it as paying extra for them.
As far as I'm concerned they're just "filler" (along for the ride).

And that "filler", sometimes I peruse it in the spirit of anthropology
because, quite frankly, I haven't got a clue about the Western culture I live in.