Paying for Television is History

Before leaving for our trip we decided to cancel our cable television.  It wouldn’t make sense for us to pay for a utility that we would not be using while on the road.  In addition to travelling for a month, our summer plans include relocation as well as a variety of other outdoor activities.  There won’t be much opportunity to sit in front of a television set.  By the end of summer we will be settled into a new home, preparing for another year of college.  In all likelihood we will look into the possibility of hooking up our cable again.  Is it really something we need?  Are there alternatives to cable?

With the relocation I hope to be able to tune into local television stations with an antenna instead of having to pay for service from a cable provider.  Our relocation will place us close to Minneapolis so we should be able to pick up many stations.  Even with the possibility of having a couple of local stations I wondered what other options are available as a substitute to paying for cable?

So far I haven’t found any great alternatives, though I have found a couple of possibilities.  The first thing I’ve found is a website called Hulu.  It is free to sign up for an account and you can watch episodes of many of your favorite shows with only minor advertising interuptions.  They offer a significant selection of both television episodes as well as movies.  The quality of the videos is great and I haven’t experienced much trouble with downloading time.  The only problem with this site is that they only offer older episodes.

Similar to Hulu is a website called Joost.  Here you are able to watch a variety of full-length television episodes as well as movies.  Most of the movies I browsed through were older titles and B films.  There are some great television shows available at this site though I was disappointed by having to sort through the short clips in order to find full-length episodes.

Another possibility I wondered about was YouTube.  A quick search of one of my favorite shows (Whale Wars) offers at least a little hope of watching some full-length episodes, though it looks as if it could be somewhat inconvenient to do so.  Despite the inconvenience of trying to watch TV shows, YouTube is great for watching music videos.  I am able to find even the most obscure songs.  It isn’t exactly a solution to our cable television situation, but still worth noting.

While it doesn’t solve the cable issue, another possibility is to utilize your local library for movie titles.  Many libraries carry a great variety of DVDs which you can check out for free.  While they may not have the most current releases they do have recent titles & you may be able to request specific movies.

Even if you are unable to tune into a local station for free, with the variety of websites available to watch practically any television series you want it doesn’t make sense to pay for a cable service.  The only exception is if you absolutely cannot live without watching the most current episodes.  Instead of paying for cable save yourself some money and use the Internet to watch your favorite television shows and take advantage of your library for your movie needs.

Update!!! July 17, 2009- I found a new site which I am just testing out but so far have LOVED!  It is called LetMeWatchThis.com.  It has many television series & new movies.  It is easy to navigate.  The only thing which brings any concern is that the site doesn’t host its own videos.  It links you to third-party websites, for example I am currently watching Six Feet Under on MegaVideo.com which I linked to from LetMeWatchThis.com.