No, I didn't do it because I am giving up TV for Lent, although that isn't a bad idea. I'm going to try some limited cord cutting. A few years ago I did the same thing, though at the time it was more for financial reasons. I couldn't afford the $90+ a month that I was paying for satellite. This time it was because I just don't think satellite is worth what I pay for it. These are the reasons I have TV in the first place, along with the reasons I don't think that cable and satellite are an acceptable value for my family.
First, I want to know what is going on in the world around me, so I watch the news. I get most of my news from Feedly, which is a service that retrieves news articles from several sources and aggregates them into a list that I can browse. I do still get a weekend newspaper, but I don't read it much and am finding that I may not be getting enough value from that either. For the price of watching an advertisement or two I can go to news websites and get most of the content without the annoying banter of the "entertainment" show hosts. For the most part, I'd rather read the news anyway. I have a pretty good mix from multiple sources that pretty well balances bias in my Feedly. I also subscribe to several YouTube channels with some really great news content which is updated regularly. Mainstream media outlets have become less fact based and more sensations, ironically in an effort to "sell" their news. Maybe this works for some people, but it turns my stomach.
Second, our family watches TV for entertainment. If we want to watch a movie, we can get it from Netflix, Redbox, or the local library. We can also get TV shows from streaming sources or DVD rental or purchases. We were spending over $1000 a year on satellite TV. Redbox rentals are $1 a night, Amazon Prime is $95 a year, Hulu is $8 a month, and Netflix is $15 a month (streaming and DVD rental). If I subscribe to all of these services and rent one movie a week from Redbox I am still spending less than $500, less than half of what I was spending for satellite. Also, we already had Amazon Prime and Netflix before we had cut satellite. We also borrow movies from our local library. No, I don't get shows the night they come out, but most of the time I prefer to binge watch several episodes at once. I don't need to watch TV shows the day the premier, plus if I watch from DVD or Netflix streaming, I don't have to watch commercials or even fast forward past them. Sometimes I have to wait up to a year to watch a season of episodes, but there is plenty of content out there. The big networks don't have a monopoly on good, original content anymore, so I don't really mind.
Third, we want what we want, and satellite and cable don't give it to us. We are forced into paying for channels we don't watch and don't want to watch while being forced to pay more and more to uptier so we can watch a channel we want. True, there are shows and movies offered by the alternate services I've mentioned that I will never watch and don't want to watch. The difference is that I'm not paying as much for the services, and I'm not being baited into paying more for one or two movies and getting access to even more content that I don't want. I like the way that Netflix has tiers based on how much of their service I can use at a given time, but I still have access to everything. I just get fewer DVDs or watch on fewer screens. I can get what I want while paying what I feel is a reasonable fee.
Finally a few thoughts on mainstream media, Hollywood, a communication companies. I believe in individual freedom, a free economy, and a limited government. However, our major communication companies, and media outlets are being propped up using tax dollars. They then claim to be increasing their prices because the government keeps charging them fees and increasing regulations. All the while posting record profits and increasing salaries and benefits of top executives. Do I have a problem with people making money? Nope. Am I going to pay a price that I think is unfair so someone else can make more money? Nope. That is how a free economy works. One party creates a product and charges what they consider a fair price, and the other party decides whether or not the product is worth the price being charged. Oddly enough, necessity items are often more price sensitive than extravagances. This is evidenced by the price sensitivity of grocery and home goods/hardware items and the ever inflating costs of movie and sporting admission.Most average families can hardly afford to take their family to a professional sporting event or even out to a nice dinner and first run movie because these prices have increased out of proportion to the average salary.
At the end of the day we cast our vote, whether it be at the polls or the cash register. We decide who we want in power through small, everyday actions. I'll post later on my similar journey with mobile phone providers.
No comments:
Post a Comment