We've had enough of television programming.

[Frankenkubota]

I cut the cord but have broadcast and ruku tv on dsl. It's rekindled my love for granny. lunch with granny pretty much every day.

What amazes me about these old shows is the stuff they said and did. Today it would be called racist or sexist or somethingist. Today you would never see it.

I wonder what the girls on CBS would say about hee haw jokes?

 

[Bearsixty7]

I've been down sizing (reducing cost of) TV expense the last several years myself. Seems they don't add anything new or valuable but want to keep increasing their monthly fee every time the "contract/no contract" term ends. Last couple times I told them I need the bill below XX or I was terminating them and they found a way to do it. Pretty much down to basic package with decent internet which is all I really want or need. Teenage son wasn't real happy about the limited channel but he's online gaming with friends 99% of the time any more. The last renewal the home phone went away but didn't need it anyway, the security system I switched to several years ago not only was less money but has it's own wireless connection. I did some initial OTA antenna shopping a couple years ago but hadn't locked in on a decision. That will probably be forced here when the next renewal comes up.

 

[Rustyiron]

Going on 12 years with no cable, and now about a year since the covid fad/hysteria started were not even watching local TV.
Streaming only now and with the longer days that's shrinking also.

 

[tradosaurus]

I've been married 33 yrs and I've had cable for only 1 year.

I generally watch old shows on Netfix (using one of my son's 5 users) or read a book. Much cheaper.

All it takes is for me to stay in a hotel and see all the crap on TV to make realize that it's just not worth it.

 

[Oaktree]

I'm the OP on this and here's how things ended up. We kicked satellite TV to the curb, went with a 60 mile over-the-air antenna and 100% love it. Free programming. When we started watching a few years back we had about 15 channels. We now get around 40 and more keep popping up. You get old reruns of programs and things that were great over the last 10 to 60 years. Best, that $125 a month monkey is off my back.

Now, if you want to watch current, impossible to believe pretend programming, OTA TV is not for you. You'll have to keep subscribing to the satellite thing. But for me, I watch what I want and spend the free time doing all the things I never had time for. It is so much better. Plus, in threeyears I saved at least $4,500 --WOW--that is about to buy me a dump trailer.

YMMV--but likely not by much.

Not sure what you mean by "current, impossible to believe pretend programming". Most of what's on OTA tv is current programming, and most "classic" shows seem to have pretty lame, impossible to believe plotlines too, not to mention really bad acting.
Yes, cable or satellite programming packages can get pricey, but there are lower-tier packages too...that's all we have. It has primarily OTA channels and a handful of others, most of which we never watch. Only OTA tv we can get is a neighboring state's public tv network, and I'm just not into PBS.
My cable bill is just under $125/mo for internet, phone and tv combined. Still more than I'd like to pay, but I don't want to drop any of those services and out here in the sticks we don't have much competition.

 

[kf4uda]

We canceled our $114 per month dish network account in 2016. It was a good day. We have been streaming ever since and never looked back. It costs us less than half the dish bill with the subscriptions that we have.

 

[MoKelly]

We canceled our $114 per month dish network account in 2016. It was a good day. We have been streaming ever since and never looked back. It costs us less than half the dish bill with the subscriptions that we have.

This seems to be the trend. I know lots of folks in your situation.

Can you stream your local stations (NBC etc)?

MoKelly

 

[JethroB]

I replaced an older Roku box recently with a newer model (Ultra LT) that also controls the TV’s power and volume. I’m very pleased. No more juggling remotes to mute. The quality of the picture seems to have improved too. (blacker blacks).

I fiddled with the remote setup feature for the Roku remote to control my Vizio sound bar instead of the TV. My sound bar goes to ‘sleep’ after a few minutes of inactivity which is annoying. Not a perfect solution but better.

 

[nybirdman]

We dumped Direct Tv after 19 years,only option at the time.Always kept the antenna for the local stations.Two years ago we got an high speed internet connection and have,internet,tv and phone for half the price of Direct TV alone.

 

[arto98607]

ABC, CBS & NBC we watch about Zero time
PBS has gone downhill big time so we just about ignore it, except few Nova stories.


We have a local TV antenna for mostly to access Grit and couple of other old movie channels and do streaming for other movies from couple of sources.
Samsung TV Plus also offers about 100 or so channels, some of which are really good.

Enjoy watching Hee Haw & Opry on Circle and NewsMax TV - all from Samsung TV Plus, but that's about it.

We do not watch any other TV news by choice, but find news online from different sources.

Cut the "cable TV" back around 2014.