Post-Television
Every so often I discover that there is something about myself or my life that confounds people as much as the fact that I am childfree. Most recently, I have come to realize that living without cable or satellite television is one of these things. Apparently, living with only over-the-air broadcasting is considered peculiar and outside the social norm.
I have been living—no, make that thriving—without cable or satellite for close to six months now. Like many Americans, before I made the break, I considered having 200 channels at my disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to be a fact of life. The cable or satellite service was a utility, just like electricity and water. I mindlessly paid the bill every month and the shows kept coming into my house.
But over time, I began to experience increasing difficulties in justifying the expense of getting those shows transmitted into my house. I was paying upwards of $80 a month for programming I watched only a few hours a week. It was particularly disturbing when I considered that I spent more in a year on television than many people in the developing world earned. My money would be better spent finding its way to charitable organizations or paying my own bills in the deepening economic downturn.
So, when I got in a billing dispute with my provider, I decided it was time to go over-the-air. I was initially nervous that I’d be lost without my 200 channels of programming, albeit there were only a dozen or so I actually watched. In addition, I had to connect my three televisions with antennae and one with a digital tuner since, after the digital television transition, I couldn’t receive over-the-air broadcasting without the new equipment.
To my surprise, life without cable and satellite was easier than expected. When I run in the morning (the only time I actually feel I need to watch television), I watch DVDs or the local news, which, actually, was usually what I watched before I cancelled my subscription service. My preference is to buy or borrow from friends a season of an hour-long television series. On DVD, the actual length of an episode ranges from 40 minutes for a recent network or standard cable/satellite program to 50 minutes for a premium cable/satellite program or a show from a few decades back. That turns out to be the perfect length for my run after which I am forced to concentrate on weights.
I’ve taken the opportunity to check out premium programming like “Dexter” that my schedule wouldn’t have allowed me to watch even if my budget had allowed me to purchase upgrades like Showtime and HBO. I’ve taken a second look at series like “The X-Files” and “Murder One” that I loved but haven’t seen in years. And I’ve watched classics like “Charlie’s Angels” that I never had the chance to watch when they were on the air.
Knowing that the next episode is ready to go in my DVD player gives me an extra incentive to get out of bed and hit the treadmill in the morning. I almost look forward to hearing my alarm clock ring. (Almost.) I also like the background noise of the television as I go to sleep, but otherwise, I generally keep the television off. This has freed up more of my time at home to pursue activities such as playing the piano, researching, and keeping up with email correspondence.
Cutting the cord on cable and satellite was a lot easier without young children. After a hard day at work, it’s easy to see why a parent would turn their child over to America’s #1 babysitter. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, using the television to keep kids occupied is common practice among parents. I know parents who use this technique, even wonderful parents who I would characterize as active and involved in their children’s lives. I assume that if I were a parent, I would ensure my child’s entertainment through children’s programming common to cable and satellite television and “on demand” services. But then, that’s because I don’t particularly enjoy spending time with young children, which, of course, is a major reason why I am childfree.
Older children would also likely make it difficult to revert to over-the-air programming. Not being too far removed from my teenage years (or not liking to think that I am), I recall talking with my friends about television. For years, I hated being the only kid in school who didn’t have cable—and I let my parents know it. The importance of expanded television programming in the lives of teens is probably even greater today now that cable networks have branched out beyond reruns and launched their own series like “Hawthorne” and “The Closer.”
Of course, there is adult peer pressure, too. A certain amount of casual conversation at work and in social settings revolves around television and the vast array of programming available to the majority of Americans who are willing to pay a monthly fee to receive it. According to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the industry trade group, in 2008, 63.7 million U.S. households subscribed to basic video services and 40.4 subscribed to digital video services. Assuming no overlap, that’s nearly 90 percent of the 116.8 million American households the U.S. Census Bureau reports for the same year. Clearly, the norm is a paid television service.
Just as it is assumed that everyone has or will have children, it seems to be a social assumption that everyone has cable or satellite television. A few weeks ago, a cable company sales representative stopped by my house to try to drum up business and asked who I had as my current provider. It didn’t occur to him to ask whether I even had a provider. My former service provider writes me letters asking me to “switch” back, the clear suggestion being that I must have gone to a competitor. Friends are astonished to learn that I get my television over-the-air. Even my grandmother, who grew up without a television, let alone cable or satellite, can’t imagine what I could possibly do in the evening if I’m not glued to the screen.
Of course, I could be watching television. But there’s nothing on! The irony is that I felt the same way before I cancelled my paid programming subscription. In many ways, nothing has changed since I made the switch. I still spend my mornings watching the local news or a DVD. I still spend my evenings pursuing my community involvement and volunteer commitments, going out with friends, researching on the Internet, or writing on my computer. The only difference is I’m not paying a monthly fee for the privilege of having television channels I’m not watching while I go about my life.
Copyright Julie Nisley. Published 2 January 2010 in Editorials.
Reader comments
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This article is awesome, I love it. I want to marry it.
Seriously, I am SO glad to read of another person who gave up cable TV and is happy without it. We got rid of cable years ago, when we were having some financial problems. At first, we planned to get it back when the money situation improved. But as time went on, we found that we didn’t really miss it.
When TV went to digital last year, we were able to get the government-issued converter box coupons for our older TVs. The picture comes in so much better than it did with just the antenna, and we have more channels…here, we get FIVE different PBS channels. That’s what we watch the most of, anyway. We’re members of our local PBS, and even so, the money we send them is a fraction of what it would cost us for cable.
We do have cable access when we stay in hotels. Flipping around the channels and seeing the junk on most of them makes me all the more glad we gave it up. I find that I miss the local PBS channels we get for free at home, that some cable systems don’t carry (my fave is Create).
You are so right in that it’s easier to disable the cable when there are no kids involved. I think a lot of cash-strapped parents keep it on because of pressure from the kids. Too many parents want to be their kids’ friends, and extend themselves too far to give them what they want.
But Mike and I are happy sans pay TV. We watch PBS, news, occasional old movies on ThisTV, really ancient TV shows on the Retro channel, also free, and DVDs. Netflix is our friend, that’s how we can watch cable-only shows.
The money we don’t spend by not paying for cable goes for much better things. Thanks again for this article!
permalink — 11 January 2010, 09:54
Great article!
I went for years without cable but my husband insists on it. I’m the type who can live without it but if I have it, can get addicted.
One of my friends watches more shows and movies on a regular basis than I do in my life, but he has never had cable. He just borrows box sets from the library, which has the added convience of no commercials plus they are in order.
Since he does have a daughter it was easier to monitor what she watched. Now that she’s older she can watch the ‘mainstream’ sort at cousins or friends, but while at home she reads, plays video games, or spends time with her parent. (Imagine that!)
permalink — 26 January 2010, 11:46