It’s Time to Dump Your Cable Bill: Get Free TV Online
One might think that cable prices would go down over-time due to increased competition and better technology, but that certainly hasn’t been the case in North America in the last decade. Cable prices are seemingly increasing perpetually, and we’re nickel-and-dimed to death for every extra feature that we might want along with our cable package. I took a look at our cable bill (which includes internet, DVR, digital cable, and some premium movie channels) that my room-mate takes care of, and it was nearly $125! That’s a lot of money for television! If you’re in a similar situation, it’s definitely worth taking time to consider some of the free alternatives available through the web.
The big three television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS are now offering their prime-time shows available to watch online for free, whenever you want. It’s like your own digital video recorder that you never have to set! On some of the sites, you can even go back and watch entire seasons of your favorite show.
If you’re looking for more than just prime time, there are a number of other television offerings from cable channels and smaller networks online. A great source for such content is AOL Video. They have content from MTV, TNT, TBS, VH1, Spike, Fox, Comedy Central, CMT, A&E, and a number of other channels. Some of the content on AOL Video is free, you’ll have to pay a couple of bucks for some of the episodes, but it’s still much cheaper than paying for an over-priced cable package.
Joost is a new option currently in beta that will allow you to watch many cable channels online just as if you were watching them on television, and do so all for free. You’ll be able to see networks such as MTV, Comedy Central, The Soccer Channel, National Geographic, and Sci-Fi. Currently the software is available on an invite only basis, but if you do some looking online, chances are you’ll be able to get an invite without very much effort.
There are also a number of non-conventional shows made available online for free by their creators, known as video podcasts. These are usually low budget informative shows that discuss a niche topic. It’s almost surprising how many great video podcasts are online for free. People with an interest and a little bit of video editing technique create a show, refine the process over time, and before you know it, there’s 100,000 people watching the show whenever it comes out! With special software such as Juice Receiver, you can set it up to automatically download new shows for you when they become available.
With all of the free television shows and other video content available online, who needs cable anymore?
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I like TV Links. It points to the various video hosting locations that currently have a copy of the show you want to see. Many of the locations seem to come and go (probably take-down notices), but I can still usually find the show I’m looking for somewhere out there!
$125 is a lot for television, but it sounds like it’s not just your television… Internet is included in that price and at around $45, it means your “TV” is probably closer to $80, right?
It looks like you get some premium channels as well, and to replace that functionality you’ll need to get something like a Netflix account. Of course you might say that you don’t get enough value out of the premium channels. We have to assume make use of the premium or you’d get rid of them. Unsubscribing from them would cut your cable bill down to around $50-$60.
If you don’t use the DVR functionality, why not ditch that extra service and bring your final cost down to around $40 a month. That’s the real cost of the basic cable service. Everything else is just the extras that you choose to add to enhance your TV experience and/or give you extra content you can’t get elsewhere.
Now you need to ask yourself what that $40 buys you. For me it buys me being able to watch shows (with good reception) in real time (not after I look like an idiot at the water cooler at work). It also buys me reasonable quality on big screen from a distance, which is far from the experience I have huddled around my laptop. I did buy a month of MLB.TV to watch my Red Sox from California. The quality doesn’t come close what I had on TV. I now have to choose whether my laptop is my TV or my computer now. Before I could look up Kevin Youkilis’ OPS via ESPN.com, while watching the game. Now, if I want to do that I’m watching the game on a postage stamp. Usually I just say it’s not worth it for me know the stats and continue to watch the pixelated full-screen feed. It’s servicable, but you wouldn’t want to get all your content that way.
I checked out Joost, AOL Videos, and TV Links, as well as the offerings by the major networks. The pros and cons of using internet based TV as a replacement for cable are pretty heavily weighted in the direction of the cons.
First is the bandwidth requirement. If you are just running the TV shows on Joost, you might get a reasonable viewing experience, but if you are doing anything else you need a high capacity bandwidth pipe (more $$). TV Links works better, but the pictures are usually very pixelated so if there is something that has to be read on screen you can forget it (watch the first offering of The Sopranos for example).
Remember that you can get all the major networks with a pair of rabbit ears in most parts of the country. Internet based TV is going to become more pervasive and supported by the networks, as it allows them to increase their ad revenue and better target their demographics (I work for a IT company that supplies broadcasters, and we are seeing more requests for Internet TV and streaming radio every day).
I cancelled my cable because they kept removing channels and increasing the cost. The benefits are more than the $60/month. I’m reading more of my books, journals, and articles that I kept meaning to read, I’m going out and exploring the area more (by bike to save gas $), and my wife and I are talking more.
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