You're doing very well with an indoor antenna--that's great! I have an outdoor antenna on a tower. Never had cable. Happy without it.

We got rid of cable in 2009 and have never missed it. We have the local channels for news. We watch DVDs. We have saved $65 a month every month since 2009.

I'm in the same boat Kathy plus a land line here was very expensive. We still gave the antenna idea it a try w/out a land line but our trees won the battle.

We have Dish Network instead, 27/mo for the basic plan and box, no box or connection upstairs where we stream from Roku instead. Our land line would set us back about 65+ a month so we're still way ahead of the game.

ETA: Even when you add in the cost to have Netflix, it's still only 35/mo.

Congratulations!

Wow! We don't have cable and use an indoor antenna for our local stations. We get 4 stations, and one of them we seldom watch. I'd love, love to get a good number of stations.

We stream tv shows that we want to watch. There's absolutely nothing on tv I'd ever pay cable for. We detest reality shows which is what the majority of programs are.

Thanks! I really feel liberated. Some of my near blood vessel breaking conversations over 10 years have been with cable companies. Comcast was terrible; Directv just a tad better. Ultimately the cost and the fact I really don't watch TV much at all pushed me over the edge.

In fact, I'm getting some channels I never got with a mid-level cable package: MeTV (all day a Mary Tyler Moore fest!), Movies!, several other PBS channels, Comet, Grit, GetTV. Have no idea whether the latter have anything worthwhile, but they are new to me. Already love the Movies! channel.

We dumped DirectTV about 4 or 5 years ago, when we realized that most of the channels we'd wanted it for in the first place had disappeared and we were spending much more time in front of our computer. We got a Roku, so we could still use our television, but technically it's not even necessary. All we currently subscribe to is Hulu, which is, I think $8 a month. There's bunches of others that are free as long as you tolerate the commercials.

We dumped DirectTV several years ago. I questioned why we were spending oodles of money to watch reruns and Pawn Stars. We have an outdoor antenna which gets several local channels (which we never watch). MeTV for MASH, and Netflix for movies.

Just last week we converted to VOIP phone (Ooma), which is $4/month once you buy the gizmo ($60). We would get rid of the land line completely, but our cell service is lousy at home, and occasionally we do like to talk to family. That conversion will pay for itself in about 2 months.

Back in the good ole days of analog, I got my TV via rabbit ears. Then when we were forced to switch to digital, no work nomo. Waaaay too far from the signal to work. I'm forced to maintain both landline and cell service because cell is unreliable. So now I get internet, TV, and LL from my dialtone provider, a so-called member owned non-profit cooperative. I still maintain a cell phone. The above costs me monthly the same as my electric, gasoline, and natural gas does. I guess I'm nuts.

We cut the cable a long time ago. We have Amazon Prime so lots to watch. And then we alternate between Hulu (no commercials) and Netflix. When I stay in a hotel I usually channel surf before bed. So many commercials! It would make me crazy to go back!

Whoa, Nelly!! Are you telling me I can cancel Directv and get an antenna for cheap and still have good-enough TV? Where can I find complete information on this to give to my (adult) grandson who I believe could make that change for me? I watch very little TV and would love not to have to pay $60 a month for what I do watch. Thanks for any and all help!

Sue, it will depend on how much your TV can pick up. I live in an urban area less than 10 miles from the broadcast stations with no high rises in between. But yes, lots of people have and are ditching cable. Start with an online site like antenna web, type in your address, and you'll learn what channels you can get and what kind of ariel you'll need. Very easy to do.

We've never had cable. Live where the land is very flat and get excellent reception. I think last time I counted, it was over 80 stations... Which includes some Spanish and Viet Namese. My husband would probably like cable but he would watch the same thing he does now...old westerns and series from the 70's. I could live without TV and for the most part, I do.

Same here. I have an outdoor antenna on a pole. I get 40 channels for free.

I also bought a DVR made especially for antennas so I record all my shows. I'm happy!

How do you get the sports channel? My DH insists.

The only sports channel available in my free local line up is the American Sports Network. Other than sports on regular local channels.

What channel were you looking for?

That's why we keep our cable-Sports. We watch ESPN, Big 10 network, and of course the majors for football and basketball. Most college basketball is on Espn, Espn2 or B10 network. Sucks.

Very true. There is TOO much money in sports so they'll never give it away for free.

My cable bill has gone up to $201 a month. Includes my $25 computer modem but doesn't include any On Demand movies I think I need to watch (they are usually a waste of money anyway at $6 when 95% of the time the movies are duds and then appear on one of the cable stations for free a few months later). It's outrageous. But then I complained when they dropped the BBC channel because it would cost their subscribers more money if they kept it. They brought back the BBC channel - and the bill went up.

I would def. miss HBO and Showtime. Plus I've heard that with some alternative options, a person loses their local stations which I watch frequently for news etc.

School, that makes sense. What I learned from my years at Time Warner Cable is that little unknown channels have to PAY the cable/dish providers to broadcast their network. But cable/dish providers have to PAY BIG bucks for popular channels, like ESPN. So those fees are forwarded to the customers.

I cut cable in 1992 - well, the weather cut my cable. It blew down a big tree when I was hosting a party here, fortunately we'd already had dinner,. I replaced electric and phone, but decided cable isn't necessary. I got TV antennae reception for 3-4 stations for nearly the next 10 years, when Osama bin Laden cut that out too.

I don't miss TV, although I plan to get limited antennae TV when I move later this year.

I'd have gone back to cable but I have no intention of paying those high fees just so ESPN (which I'd never watch) can get its moolah. I'd only be watching maybe 5 hours a week of stuff anyway. Books are better. Internet is better.

Twenty miles from town - cable not available.

Satellite - r' nuthin: I've been successful at resisting (so far).

o j

schoolhouse, that is a high bill! Mine was only $55.00 when I decided it was far too much :) But that shows you how little I watch. The only channel I will miss is TBS which had all those great old movies. But as mentioned I now seem to have a "free" movie channel with some good selections. Last evening I watched Mommie Dearest (which I had never seen), although I'm kind of sorry I did--just a creepy movie.

I don't get any sports channels in my now-42 channels (a couple others started to come in). Which to me is a plus!

The only (minor) downside is you do need to tinker a bit with the antenna to get it in the right spot for some channels. Reminds me of the rabbit ears we had to fiddle with endlessly many years ago!

I live 52 miles from the TV transmitters south of San Antonio. I got a $150 Winegard antenna on a pole on top of the house. With a relatively weak signal going to 3 TVs, I had to put in two amplifiers (Home Depot). We get 40+ channels including the back channels on the major networks and PBS.

In addition we have a Roku stick on one TV. We subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime and watch through the Roku.

In addition to that, the newer cell phones have a feature called casting. You can connect a phone to the Roku, wirelessly, and the phone will "cast" whatever is on the screen over to the Roku and the TV. This uses data, so you should have unlimited data and a good cell connection. There is also a wired version of the cell phone cast technology called MHL for under $20. Those work with older cell phones and might be more reliable than the wireless casting. Thus any video on any app playing on your phone can be viewed on your TV in HDTV with high quality sound.

I bought this outdoor antenna. It rotates. There's a little box with a remote to make it rotate. With the 150 mile radius I get lots of channels.

I opted for the Sports Ohio channel years ago so I could watch all the Cavs games. With it came a "sports package" of about 20 ESPN and other sports channels I never watch. I mentioned the BBC channel. Well, the BBC they brought back is nothing like what I remember. This one shows old re-runs of Dr. Who, with an occasional "new" episode that leads to none other in the series plus old re-runs of Star Trek, the original series. What's up with that? I suppose if we want better programming we will need to shell out some more $$$.

Emory, thanks for the first thing: how much my TV can pick up? I have no idea. I think I will have to turn this whole idea over to my GS because I know next to nothing about all this. I can handle my computer really well, but the details of the TVS are beyond me, especially since I watch so little of any of it.

School. It took me a month to get used to not having cable TV. I was an employee at Time Warner Cable & they provided ALL their services free to employees. 300 channels, all the pay TV (HBO, Showtime, Epix, The Movie Channel) plus home phone, security system & the fastest internet. That was hard to give up. But all that for a regular customer with DVR was $400 a month

But when my long term disability kicked in, they cut me off. So I just kept internet & got the outdoor antenna & DVR.

There are some channels I miss, but I refuse to pay such high prices for TV.

Schoolhouse, you could still get the channels you want via streaming. They require a small monthly subscription but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than 200!

Also, I know with Comcast, renting a modem for internet is not mandatory, you can opt to purchase one which will pay for itself over the course of just a few months.

We have the lowest option for Dishnetwork, at the time it was 27.00/mo, then we have Ooma for our phone 4/mo, and Comcast internet, 65.00/mo and netflix 8/mo, so just over 100.00 for all our services and there has been no compromise on the quality of what we watch or do. We rent our modem which cost us somewhere around 100.00

I don't think we'd get much without cable, so we are with Dish right now.

Living where we live there is no cable and no satellite. We have always had a tripod on our roof with our antenna and an amplifier in our attic. My husband watches television every waking hour. I only watch it when I go to bed. Thankfully I am not in the same room with him during the day!

Sue

I've been enjoying listening to record albums more than TV lately. I'm a season behind on just about everything.

I watch news in the morning while I eat breakfast, rarely watch daytime TV, then turn it back on around 4p for local evening news and other programming until bedtime a 11:30p or midnight.

Emory, I checked my area at antenna web it said I would get up to 2 channels. Lol.

I'm fed up with Comcasts prices. I was paying 219$ a month for two big boxes and 2 of the small ones, WiFi, HBO...I called in December and told them I can't afford this..they changed my plan, took HBO..Added Starzz and a phone and lowered my bill to 170...I took it but no I need a lower bill. They said they have a premotion comming up in March for 102$ for everything I already have and they will put me on that the second week of March. Its a 24 month locked in price. This is ridiculous what cable companys charge. If it wasn't for the fact that Amiee relys on Cable and WiFi as she's mostly in bed I'd cancell it all, but I can't do that to this kid.

We put a huge old fashioned antenna in our attic, 25 years ago. It gives us 23 channels. We're on top of a hill, that helps. ;0) Glad your happy with your new antenna!

Mama, 2 channels? Good grief. Your stuck then. That's terrible.

It also frustrates me that I cannot watch ABC, NBC or CBS on my phone or tablet for free. Must have a cable/dish subscription to watch full shows on mobile devices.

Scott, are you sure? I have the CBS app on my tablet so I can watch episodes of Blue Bloods and Hawaii 5-0 that I've missed. No cable or dish subscription here. Not even a data plan.

Or maybe you're referring to watching shows as they appear on TV, not the next day.

On our Roku, CBS makes you start a paid subscription for access.

Not free

Oh, nice. I haven't used it in a while. Well, that's the end of my access.

On Roku you can also get Sling TV for about $20.00/ month. It has a bunch of channels, AMC, Lifetime, CNN, Travel, HGTV & a few sports channels including ESPN just to name a few.

I cut the cord about 15 years ago and never looked back. Thought about cable or satellite again a few times but when I see it at a hotel or someone's house it reminds me of why I dropped it. I get broadcast channels that aren't on at least some of the cable systems so friends of mine stop by wanting to watch TV here! I also got broadband many years back and justified it partly for work and partly as recreation and partly for my part-time work. Now that work is done I don't regret getting it but I have a pretty basic broadband and am very happy. I don't bother with Netflix or those things, there's SO much to watch on the internet that I don't need to pay their fees for it. Broadcast reception varies but satellite reception varied too. Bad weather and you have reception problems but there was also problems even with cable since they use satellites (or at least used to). I watch less TV than I used to. I like using the computer. So the hideous cost of cable and satellite are gone, my cell phone is a couple bucks a month, there is about $30-$40/mo. I suppose for the cost of broadband but that's acceptable to me.

We cut out our cable a couple of years ago. We use Apple TV to buy the seasons of just the few shows we watch. We had a pretty basic cable package but we got tired of paying for so much that we weren't using.

We will cut our cable this spring. We have tried an indoor antenna but it really doesn't work all that well. We bought an antenna for outdoors but it got to cold to put it up. So now we wait.

My daughter cut her satellite TV and her internet. The only thing that is available in her area is satellite internet and that was very expensive and did not give her much use before she would go over - she could watch something like 1 movie a month. After that, internet slowed way down. She does not yet have an antenna. She has very young kids and she decided they really didn't need to watch TV at their age. She does have her cell phone which has internet. She uses her cell phone for whatever she needs as far as the internet.

I thought about giving up internet & just using my phone. But to increase my phone data plan to encompass full internet usage I'd need unlimited. Which comes out to be the same price I pay for internet. So I reduced my cellphone plan to 1 gig of usage a month to save money on the phone bill.

Glad you posted this Emory. I'm contemplating doing the same thing. My "special" bundle price with TWC just went to $189 a month and I'm disgusted. I would also agree that I've had some near blood vessel breaking conversations with them....so I'm paying almost $200 a month to have a stroke....doesn't make sense and I HAVE to do something about it. They just count on people procrastinating and not wanting to deal with it.

For those of you with Comcast. There's been a Comcast rep in Walmart, in electronics offering to find ways of cutting your Comcast bills. Lots of packages with reduced cost.I believe they are 24 month premotional packages. My bill was 220... I just reduced it to 175 but the rep in Walmart found me the same package except it comes with 4 premium channels for 120. If you ddon't want to go to Walmart try calling Comcast.

Good job. More time for books!