My First Year of Free TV
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| Can You Survive Without Paying For TV? Image Source: Dr. Penny Pinche |
About one year ago, I reached the end of my tolerance for paying ridiculously high satellite TV bills. I called up my satellite TV company and asked about lower cost plans. I was paying about $120 per month and had been a customer for about 10 years. I wanted to know what I could do to lower my bill. Cable TV packages have similar ridiculous bills.
Dish Network had a few suggestions to cut back channels and change my TV package, but the savings weren't enough. I decided to drop satellite TV. I was worried about how my family would react, but the change has been positive- not just saving money.
Can People Survive without the NFL Channel?
When I cut the cable, football season was fast approaching. On Saturdays, I often watched college football on ESPN, ESPN2, and the Big Ten Channel. On Sundays and Thursdays, plenty of NFL football could be found on the NFL channel. I was worried enough that I actually put my satellite service "on pause" rather than completely cancelling it. That way I could resume without starting a new 2 year service plan in case I just couldn't make it without satellite TV.
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| 57 Channels and Nothing On... Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher |
As fortune would have it, I came into a bit of extra cash and bought an indoor HD TV antenna for about $45. This seemed like a real bargain compared with $120 per month, every month, for the rest of my life for satellite TV or cable TV. In my area, I can get ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and several PBS stations. It is great to be able to get local news and weather reports. The TV stations have been broadcasting in HD for several years now- the picture I get with my indoor HDTV antenna looks great.
I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of NFL football I can watch over the air for free. Plenty of college games too. For the games I can't watch, I can see highlights on Sportscenter and similar sports shows.
How Did My Family React to Cutting TV?
I was surprised how little reaction there was to the decision to cut satellite TV in my house. My wife and kids watch Netflix, and we kept Netflix, so no change there. I though it was really interesting that no one really missed getting all of those channels. It mainly affected me since I liked having a lot of options for watching football, but I was willing to try something new to save $1400 per year.
Some of the Hawkeye football games were on the Big Ten Network, which I could no longer watch. I ended up listening to some of these games on the radio out in the garage. This was actually better in some ways, since I would work on my car or work on other projects in the garage while I listened to the games. If I had the game available on TV, I would have been sitting on the couch watching it.
Another benefit of having free TV- it takes much less time to determine that nothing is on! With hundreds of channels, you can spend an entire evening channel surfing. When you only have about 5 channels to check, you can quickly determine that there is nothing on and then do something else.
When we had satellite TV, we often had the TV on from 7pm until 10pm every night. Now, the TV is on only a few nights per week, and usually only for an hour or so. With less stuff on TV, we spend less time watching TV.
We used to keep our Xbox video game system downstairs and had our main TV upstairs. Since we don't watch TV much anymore, we moved the Xbox upstairs. Instead of having two living rooms, we only really use one now. It seems like a better arrangement to have everyone gather in the same area instead of having two gathering areas in the house.
How To Survive Without Paying For TV
My experience with free TV has been good so far. The savings in money has been significant, but savings in time has been significant as well. It seems like my family spends more time doing things other than watching TV and looking for something to watch on TV, and I think that is a good thing.
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| Get Free TV with an Indoor HD TV antenna Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher |
If you are thinking about cutting the cable and not paying for TV anymore, here are some tips:
- Get Netflix for $8 per month- you'll have access to tons of TV shows that you can watch whenever you want on your TV or on your computer.
- Get an indoor HDTV antenna- get free high definition TV over the air. Watch live news, weather, sports, and network TV shows for free. Here is the HD TV antenna that I use: RCA ANT1650F Flat Digital Amplified Indoor TV Antenna
Recommended Reading:
This article has details on selecting and installing an indoor HD TV antenna to get free TV: Cut Cable TV and Save $1200 per Year
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