My name is Nathan Bransford. And I only have basic cable.
Now, if you are stopping by the blog for the first time, this may not be such a big deal. But know this: I LOVE TV. I love TV like Tyra Banks loves models screaming at her surprise arrival. I love TV like Chris Harrison loves rose ceremonies. I love TV like Don Draper loves almost but not quite unattainable women.
You get the picture.
The decision to cut the cable wasn’t the result of some high-minded, erudite reasoning, like waking up and realizing that TV was rotting my brain. (That dream about Jeff Probst interrogating me about my job performance at Tribal Council? Totally normal!)
My wife and I just noticed something one day: we weren’t really watching TV anymore. And cable is a really, really expensive thing to pay for if you’re not watching it.
In my old job as a literary agent, on weekdays I was working from 7:30 in the morning to 8:00 at night, and I was spending a huge chunk of that time reading. On the weekends I was writing from morning until night. After a day of reading and writing, it’s not particularly relaxing to end it with still more reading. TV was the perfect antidote.
And it just so happens that my time as an agent coincided with a Golden Era of Television, with both reality TV and scripted shows that raised the bar for what was thought possible on television. It was really easy to get sucked in when there was such excellent entertainment to be had (and also The Hills and The Bachelor, which were non-excellently but deeply entertaining).
But now that I no longer read for work, I have rediscovered this crazy indulgence called reading for pleasure. Including books published before 2005! Before 1930 even! I’m even re-reading books I’ve read before! It is amazing!
And I’m sorry to say that I’m feeling like TV overall just isn’t as awesome as it was five years ago, with many reality shows feeling stale and only a few scripted shows that are really killing it. At this point there are only three shows that I feel like I can’t miss:
Parks & Recreation, Modern Family, and Mad Men.
Two of those are on network TV, and one is on hiatus.
Hence: basic cable for us. It still gives me the chills from time to time when I realize I can’t watch ESPN, but the truth is that I’m too busy with other things anyway. For anything else I can’t get on network TV, there’s Netflix, Hulu, and iTunes. We’re saving a ton of money, I’m re-reading The Great Gatsby, and I couldn’t be happier.
How about you? Have your TV habits changed at all, and have you thought about cutting the cord?
Regarding the reference to Jeff Probst and Survivor, which is produced by CBS, which is the parent company of CNET, which is where I am employed: the opinions expressed herein are purely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CBS.
I don't own a TV either. I gave it away when West Wing was cancelled. If Aaron Sorkin writes another show, I'll get it on iTunes or Hulu.
I have two small kids, and I write books and articles. Who has the time for TV?
I've never equated choice with channel number.
Here in the UK we have 5 main channels. 3 are great, one is pretty good, the other is rubbish.
Then there are accessory channels to the main 3 (mainly extra BBC stuff) which have more than enough back-up material.
After that come 80-odd free channels of repeats, crap, marketing TV — and more crap.
Once you start paying subscriptions for EVEN MORE TV, the crap does that thing zits do when they get infected, and I have no desire for stuff like that to come bursting in on my life.
So — I'm happy to have zero subscriptions and a FAVOURITES hit-list on my remote control numbering just over half a dozen.
Drama, news, documentaries, films, drama: that's what I watch TV for. Niche quizzes, talentless talent shows and spurious "The Woman With A Penis For A Neck" kind of offerings are such a waste of airspace — and in my experience, mainly on cable.
Reading your post and the comments has been very informative. I am as put out with our current satellite situation as I was with our previous cable connection. So many channels but very little to watch. Being technically challenged, I keep putting off investigating other TV viewing venues. But I am now resolved to remove all those wasted channels and expense from my life. Thanks for bringing this up!
We have a digital cable package we got with phone and Internet that takes advantage of our HDTV. Hubby loves it. (He's a big TV guy.) I like having the toddler/preschool shows for my son.
But I find myself turning something on "just for noise" while I'm doing something else, so I'm trying to do that less. I am, after all, very behind in listening to podcasts.
If we hadn't gotten such a good deal for our bundle, I don't think we'd have cable TV at all (even basic) since we can get so much of what we watch on Netflix and Hulu. That may be where we go in the future.
I use to follow certain shows faithfully but stopped after the second season of 24. First of all, I was mad at myself for not being able to tell it wouldn't be as good as the first season and instead watched it till its sorry end. Also, I found myself getting annoyed that my child wasn't in bed by 8 before the show started. Something was very wrong with my priorities.
So I stopped following shows. I still would watch Anthony Bourdain or Law and Order reruns during the day when I ate lunch at home. But eventually I found even that no longer appealing. So all I watch are movies on our Roku. Haven't missed TV shows at all.
Personally, I don't watch much television. Never have.
My wife is a major sports fan, though, so we maintain the minimum level of cable that allows for TSN and SportsNet (think the Canadian version of ESPN with less football and more hockey).
It's amazing that, in a world that consists of hundreds of channels, there seems so little worth tuning in for. Surely Weird Al was right.
I never had cable TV since I am a recent college graduate and still haven't started earning enough money to warrant it. But I have gotten by with Netflix, ESPN3.com, and Hulu streaming through my roommate's XBox 360. I don't know if I'll ever get cable with this setup.
Nathan, how can you not be a fan of Smallville? It the final season … he actually gets to wear the freaking cape and fly!
You know, honestly, I could probably go the route you're talking about, but the rest of my family would kill me. The wife couldn't survive a week w/o Glee, Castle and House. The kids would murder me where I sleep if Cartoon Network and iCarly were no longer available.
I don't have cable at all, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. These days I can watch most anything worthwhile on Hulu or Netflix (five dollars a month!), which is handy.
What I miss is being able to turn on the TV to some basic documentary or crappy sci-fi b-movie while I work. Sometimes I like having the sound, or something I can look up at periodically.
There are about five channels I would love to have, and I'd be willing to pay about five bucks a month for those five channels, so it really isn't worth it for me to pay $60+ for cable when I just want some fluff sometimes.
On the other hand, I've been watching more documentaries on Netflix lately, and I've learned a lot. Back in the day before Discovery and TLC became primarily reality-based shows, I used to love sitting around watching documentaries. It's cool to be able to do that again, so I'm getting more out of it. 🙂
Now if I could only get Hulu to put up the early seasons of Chuck streaming…
We did away with TV because we couldn't afford it. We did away with internet because we couldn't afford it either. Hey, YOU try to decide if you want to eat or have entertainment. It sucks. We now have internet again (obviously since I spend so much time on it) but still no TV.
Our roommate has a TV and has the converter box so she can watch network television. I may stop for a minute to watch while I wait for water to boil, but then I'm back to my books, my writing, and occasionally watching streaming stuff on my laptop or the big computer. I'll even watch the occasional DVD – okay, okay, I'll LISTEN to the occasional DVD movie/TV series…watching requires actually looking at the Mac where it's usually playing – while I'm writing to provide background noise.
When we get a place of our own, the only thing our TV will be used for is for my gamer husband to play his video games. We are just not a TV oriented couple anymore.
We have never had more than basic cable until a few months ago when my sister-in-law moved in and had to have ESPN. As soon as she moves out, we're back to basic. For the few times we watch TV, that's more than enough. I just can't find much that's worth my time to watch.
Television is both expensive and distracting.
My kids were really upset at first, but we have Netflix which streams television shows…granted they are a season old, but they didn't really seem to care.
So the habit to plop on the couch is not totally gone, but seriously curbed.
I get a lot more writing at night done when I'm not worrying about Pacey and Fringe.
Edge of Your Seat Romance
I was a teenager in the Fifties (I'm much older than all of you!) Nowhere near the number of commercials then on TV. And I still read books, books, books, and played outside with my friends. Then came Cable, and now DirecTV, which I canceled last summer; they kept raising the rates My disabled daughter agreed all she was really watching was weather (which she can get on her iPod and I on the Internet) and old movies/shows (which we now get through Netflix via Roku). Why pay almost $70 a month? That's a lot of money! Hooray for those who have done the same, or use antennas, etc.
Haven't had TV since I was seven. I watch House on Hulu and that's pretty much it.
Also, not having a TV to center my living room around makes my living space so much more zen.
All… the… time.
Unfortunately, our Networks suck.
Sigh.
*hugs* It's a tough world, but thanx to the internet we can have it all if we really want to. I don't watch too much TV either and I could survive on basic cable if I needed to, probably less if the truth be known. Thank God for the internet. I don't miss my newspaper prescription, or even watching the news. It's changing so many things, even the way in which I read (ipad). It's a good thing.
No TV. Just Netflix and a projector. It's great.
Not watching TV, when everyone else does, is probably the best way to take over the world. I'm sad you're jumping on that boat too. I'd rather not divide that pie again.
We dropped cable. The husband and I had a wonderful honeymoon in a house on a beach without telephone, internet, or cable, and we read like mad, wrote like mad, and enjoyed having dinner together sitting at a table.
We dropped our cable package – even went from digital cable with a box to good ole' coaxial in the back of the tv, and kept basic cable and broadband internet, and we're probably going to drop both for mifi as soon as we're convinced it's reliable.
We watch Hulu – Kitchen Nightmares, The Office; A&E online – Hoarders, Heavy; and the Daily Show on Comedy Central. We watch movies on Netflix. We bought episodes of The Walking Dead from Amazon on demand, so we didn't even miss out on that.
It's awesome to be off cable. We may buy a big monitor, so we aren't just huddling around a laptop — but we may not.
I've never been a big TV fan, and I would rather listen to music than turn on the TV.
Haven't unplugged though, due to hubby's attachment to certain channels – like Mythbusters, Top Gear, etc.
For me, I like the movie channels — especially when there's talk of more charges being levied for downloading movies, Netflix, etc. via the internet (in Canada, anyway). I'm hoping there will be intervention on that one.
Your brain cells thank you when your viewing of reality shows take a dive. (just IMO)
We can't get cable where we are, so we have a satellite, but only to watch sports and movies. And a lot of the movies we watch are DVDs, so mostly the sattelite is for sports. We watch almost no TV in terms of shows. Which is good, I think. I don't feel like I'm missing much, and I don't like that feeling of compulsion, of needing to watch this specific thing every week. I can't miss it! And so all your nights fill up with these shows you've scheduled into your life. Freedom and whimsy? No thank you. The next episode of ________ is on.
Congratulations on your rediscovered love of reading!!! You're right, when you do a lot of writing/reading, your brain just needs some veg time. That's great. No, I try to watch as little TV as possible, and descend into a crazy nonsensical guilt-spiral every time I find myself loving a show. Only "Twin Peaks," "Lost" (for a time), and "Glee" have ever sucked me under. Oh, and "Inside the Actor's Studio.":)
To be totally honest, my first thought reading this post was, 'Yay! Another writer loves television as much as I do.' I've always felt like writing and television are incompatible, or at least I feel like I've been told that a lot. But to be honest, I don't really watch that much TV. A few shows that I adore (House, Big Bang Theory, and The Office), and then sometimes I'll lounge with the Food Network on. But I do try not to let it cut in on my writing time. Anyway, I am super glad you are getting a chance to read some books of your own choosing. Hope this new pattern works well for you 🙂
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
I have a TV with a digital tuner. I had to cut back on some bills and cable was the first. I put rabbit ears on that TV and got 11 regular channels, 6 PBS channels (didn't even know that had that many), and 4 Spanish.
In Florida where I live we have the red box where you can rent a movie for $1, that's right $1.
The kids still watch to much TV, even with no cable. They complain a little about some of the shows they can't see, but they don't complain as much anymore.
We cut cable a year ago and haven't looked back. Much. We use netflix and watch online via hulu, etc. The only thing we miss is NFL, but that's what friends are for.
My writing time has skyrocketed, but even better, we're not exposing our two littles to all the advertising.
We never had a cord. We don't watch any broadcast TV at all, only videos, and those in moderation. Mostly classic movies and BBC, which we usually get from the library. It's more a cultural and spiritual decision for us than a financial one, although we couldn't afford cable if we wanted it.
I just bought a Playstation and stream Netflix through the console. So not only am I fine through basic cable, but I cut down the number of disks I get in the mail. Ding ding! Extra savings! Maybe after 20 years or so the Playstation will pay for itself.
I lived in a house without a tv for nine months. It was a basement flat and television signals apparently don't delve that low. Anyway, after these nine months of being tv less, tv was not fun anymore. Too many adverts and too static. I can't sit down for that long anymore. My concentration span it seems is not suited to the television.
For four years, we didn't have a tv really. We bought the shows we wanted to watch from itunesand used a projector and computer. Then we moved house and are without DSL plus the floor plan didn't allow for a projector.
So we bought a tv but for a month just watched DVDs and downloads that we'd stockpiled before moving, since we knew it would be awhile before we got DSL.
Then I had a baby at the end of November. Four years without any kind of broadcast tv and all it took was two nights alone with an infant to break me. I agreed to satellite television andbhave been watching while nursing my son, who is hungry *all* the time. Since Christmas, I've been on a steady diet of baby-related reality shows, reruns of the 90s (Frasier, Friends, ER, and XFiles), and some pretty good new shows, like Parenthood.
I've felt a little like my brain is rotting, but it's tricky to read one-handed, not to mention the hassle of driving 20 miles to the library or 40 to the bookstore. Then I hit upon the idea of getting Kindle books and reading them on the iPad. It's magic. I've already read 7 chaptersbof Dennis Lehane's latest and am happy out.
Here’s the thing, I hate cable TV but when I met Himself, part of the package along with two great step-sons was Sky TV. Three soccer mad males that need televised games as much as they needed oxygen. I hate sport of any kind – not doing it just watching it but the alternative was being a soccer widow had they decided to follow games at the stadiums. Ten years later and I am a convert. Why? Because I hate adverts even more than I hate televised sport and all the low rent stations that come with cable and SKY+ lets me fast forward past the whole lot at the touch of a button. Magic, worth every penny!
We are very retro living out in the wilds of Upstate New York. There is no cable. It is not a choice. We could go for a satellite as our neighbors have, but I object to paying for TV. As a consequence, we have a marvelous big flat screen TV connected to the networks by a reasonably good antenna providing us with more viewing options than we need. Movies look really good on that screen. So does PBS! I am content with my books, my e-reader and the manuscripts I am working on. Now if I could wean myself from FaceBook…..
We haven't had a TV in more than 2 years, though we DO watch some shows on Hulu and AETV with our laptops, such as House, Lie To Me, Bones, The First 48 and Glee! =)
I miss having a "real" TV from time-to-time, as I love playing the Wii, but I must say, we've been more productive over the past 2 years than I think we've ever been! We've even lost weight, as we don't snack as much without a TV.
Now that I have an e-Reader (the Nook), I find that I read even MORE than ever, which gives me great pleasure =)
Good on ya for getting rid of cable and its brain-sucking capabilities. I agree, TV just ain't what it used to be with all of the ridiculous, inane reality shows.
I've had basic cable in the more than three years I've been married. It was hard at first, because I live on channels like Discovery and History, but I got used to it. We have Netflix and only pay like $9 a month for unlimited streaming movies and TV shows. We've been thinking of cutting the basic cable too and just using an antenna since all the channels are digital now, and I really have like one or two shows that I watch regularly. And if I miss those–Hulu 🙂
I don't pay for the cable in my house, so I really don't have a say in whether we keep it or get rid of it.
This isn't as awesome as your lifestyle adjustments, but we recently got rid of HBO and Showtime-and saved $30 a month in the process. Am I still going to watch True Blood? Absolutely! I may have to wait for it to come on DVD, though.
I watch so little TV I would definitely save the cash if I could- but I'm outvoted in this house…BBC America (Doctor Who, basically) keeps us a slave to the cable powers that be…for now.
I just don't have enough eyesight to go around, I honestly only watch a couple shows, mostly ones I got hooked on while I was too sick to do anything else last year and so I still watch them- Cake Boss and Pawn Stars (which is funny and you learn the coolest stuff on that show).
There are just so many other things I'd rather be doing…believe me when I tell you, Jedi Master, when I went blind, TV was NOT something I cried over losing.
In fact, when the last of my vision was going, I would sit every night and watch the sunset and wonder if it'd be the last one I would ever see. Then, when I got limited use of my sight back, the sights I saw- my child's shiny new braces and the smile that went with them, the stars, for the first time in years, and the ability to see colors to paint again…well, yeah.
TV is still a hugely low priority for me.
They don't know how long I'll keep the vision I got back- already lost a great deal of it in the one eye. The other has a clock ticking on it but no one knows when time will be up. So every day, I have to decide what I spend my eyesight on very carefully.
For just about a year now, as much as possible, this blog has been one of those things. :~) Soon as I figure out how to make it work i'l have my reader program reading your words to me in a British accent and that will amuse me highly.
and I never like, link my blog here and stuff but I know you have said you love Disneyland- if you want to see something cool, there's a post on my blog from August 10, 2010 where I talk about going to Disney World to see the fireworks after getting my sight back.
The Cast Members there did some pretty cool stuff for me when they found out about my eyes- you may enjoy it.
I just wish I could adequately describe what it was like to see the individual little lightbulbs lighting up Main Street for the first time in my life. I never saw them right, even as a child. It was incredible…and so much better than TV. And I remember sitting in Rocket Tower Plaza, eating popcorn for breakfast before going to see the Jack Sparrow pirate show and thinking- THIS is the kind of thing I fought to get my sight back for.
Sorry for the detour there…I just hope that maybe somebody reading this will decide to unplug today too and appreciate their vision a little more in the process.
~bru
Stopped cable in 2003. Best decision EVER. If I find a television show I like, it's cheaper to buy it or to rent it.
I am so geared up it is ridiculous. Digital cable with premium channels, Roku box and Apple TV. Stream Netflix, Amazon VOD as well as Comcast On Demand. Cable is outrageously expensive. I have thought about trying to cut cable out all together but it comes down to a math equation. If you watch a good 6 shows or so (especially premium cable shows) and want to catch them on original release it can be more expensive to buy them online. That said if you only like a few shows cut that cable. The prices charged for top of the line cable service are absurd.
Great minds (?) do not always think alike! I'm going the other way soon. I've hardly watched TV in 3 years, but I do miss it. Movies and documentaries more than series, though.
I do watch DVDs though, and Blu-rays when I can get the damned blasted AACS Key work-of-the-devil-himself thingybob updated. I hope e-books work better than Blu-rays, or we could all be doomed! DOOMED, I tell ya!
So, your indirect employers are indirectly rotting your brain? But not in their view, of course. I see a plot! An SF plot. JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE TRIBAL JOB POW-WOW?
P. S. You won't LITERALLY cut the cable, will you, Nathan? I have visions of thousands of SURVIVOR-deprived San Franciscans throwing themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge and causing one helluva traffic jam.
I cut back ages ago and found some interesting alternative channels were included in my basic DISH lineup. Nothing like Free Speech TV, Link TV, and others to remind you of how filtered our news is on regular channels.
If the UK's Syfy, E4, Skys and the channels that are loosely BBC's, weren't available, I'd be gnawing on my TV set like a Daybreakers-bad-vamp. Nasty.
Dumping ESPN gets you a corner cut off your Man Card.
We cut the cable completely about five months ago. Nobody really misses it, the six year old included.
I have books to write, my husband has films to edit, and my son has lego towns to build. Once in a while we make some treats and watch a movie.
Life is good.
Oh my God – i'm the only one i know (up until i read your post responses)that does not have television. that is so not a reflection of the national average. me included; i don't have a television.
are we the only beings in the Western Hemisphere that prefer, dare we say, something else?
We have basic cable, but don't watch that often. We're more likely to set the TV to a cable music channel or Pandora Radio.
99% of what we watch is DVR-
Modern Family
Big Bang Theory
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
America's Funniest Videos
And of course, read/write as time permits.
My fiance and I have a TV that we only use for watching DVDs. We don't have Sky (British cable) and we're not even sure if our house has a TV license (which you legally need in order to watch TV in the UK). It's great. We spend loads of time reading and writing, we only watch shows we really like on DVD or on the Internet, and we don't have to sit through inane commercials.
We cut the cord when our first born was about a year old. That was almost 10 years ago and haven't looked back since. And thanks to good ol' fashioned commercialism and utube, our kids haven't been sideswiped by it. They're just as familiar with Sponge Bob and Phineas and Ferb as the next kid.
I used to be a TV junkie. My weekdays were driven by what shows to watch on each night. Even if I wasn't watching TV it had to be on (it was like having company, a distraction from the silence where you can hear the house settling). Needless to say, I wasn't much of a reader (or writer) at that time. Since I found the joys of getting lost in a book or creating my own worlds through writing, however, I've weened myself from the idiot box. Now, I find that I watch one or two shows on network television. For anything else, such as Dexter or Dead Like Me, my family and I will catch those episodes on Netflix during "family time". I've come to revel in the pleasure of life outside of the glass tube. Cheers, Nathan. Thanks for sharing!
We haven't had any cable at all for years. Not even during
9/11. It was a week until I actually saw the horror of that on a TV screen. I read a lot, write a lot, and watch movies on Netflix.
We go with the basic package which is already highway robbery.
I'm sort of a news junky, which is usually a complete waste of time as it just loops and teases.
I have three shows I really like, so they will probably not last long:
Glee (LOVE it!)
Harry's Law
Parenthood
Others, I might tune in for or not.
If I could just rig a set of rabbit ears and get the main stations, I would be happier not paying $80.00 a month!
Over the weekend I ended up watching an hour of National Geographic on my computer on i-tunes: a documentary about crocodiles. It was unbelievably moving and I realized how different and intimate it was with headphones and the screen right there.I was affected so much more than on the TV across the room. I noted that there are over 2,000 such documentaries on i-tunes of free National Geographic with awesome footage, original music, and that bring you into the universe.
Welcome back to rereading and the love of reading for relaxation.
Not itunes, watched it on Youtube.
(brain on after Superbowl loss of wiring)