We live in an area that does not have cable. Microwave towers and such block all but 1 station on our antenna. This block occured when the country switched to digital.
We have "Direct TV" and the prices are skyrocketing. I just got my bill and like the frog in the pot of boiling water, I never felt the heat. It's now over $98.00 a month and we don't even have premium channels. I've watched the charges go up and it's almost a monthly thing. I keep saying to myself that I have to do something about this. What we pay for is HD and the HD DVR. We also have the extra charges for the upgrade to the 210 channels and the added cost for local programming.
We also have Netflix and I'm tremendiously happy with their service. We are retired and watch 1-2 movies a week in the afternoon and drop them in the mail before it goes out at 4:30. We rarely lack for a good movie.
Believe it or not, we're not big TV watchers but since I like to watch WPT, Speed channel, All car stuff, Pawn starts, Pickers, etc. and my wife likes the gardening shows and HGTV along with old movies. To keep us happy, we think we need the 210 channels. The DVR is our lifes blood. All of the stuff we like gets recorded so we can zip through all the BS and probably watch an average of 4 hours of programming in 2 hours or less. Once you have a DVR you'll never want to watch TV without one again.
Anyway, here's where I'm going with this.....I think I'm going to drop the local programming (I read all of the local and national news every day on the net anyway) and all we do at 5:30 is watch local headlines and skip to the weather. I also think I'm going to drop the HD stuffif if it's an extra. And the big question is I'm thinking about buying a Tivo.You can buy a Tivo HD receiver for $100.00 on EBay.
I'm sure that with the economic times, several of you have made some changes and learned to live with them. Like a wise man once said "good times make for bad habits."
Any suggestions?