On a whim, I decided to do a Google search for alternatives to satellite TV. You see, we don't have all the premium channels, but our TV still costs over $96/month. That seems like a lot of money to me. Especially considering that we typically only watch a handful of shows. We don't watch primetime TV for the most part, and I've never seen an episode of American Idol (gasp!) or any other reality TV show. Not because I'm some TV snob or anything - I just don't have the time or the interest.
So I started doing a little research and came across an interesting article. If you care to read it, here's a link. http://manofthehouse.com/money/budget/life-after-cable-tv-and-satellite-6a
This weekend we bought a Roku box. According to my husband (who knows way more than me about these things), that's what lets us stream video into the house and get stuff like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video On Demand, etc. It was fairly inexpensive, I think he paid $79 for it, and it looked like it was easy to hook up.
We are toying with the idea of getting rid of our satellite TV completely, and only going with the Roku and a few providers - definitely Netflix, and probably Hulu. The Roku is already paid for, Netflix is $8 per month and Hulu Plus is $10/month. Add in the cost for an antenna to get local programming, and we've got a pretty streamlined TV expense.
While this all sounds well and good, I'm not sure how it will work in reality. We're spending the next month navigating thru it all and experimenting. I'll let you know how it goes, what we end up deciding, and how my little guinea pigs feel about the whole process. Here's to keeping all your options open!
please keep us posted on how this works! we have been toying with the same idea and not sure if we can make the switch!
ReplyDeleteSo far so good. We are still holding onto satellite to ensure a smooth transition, but I did downgrade our channel package and saved $20/month. Everytime the kids turn on the TV now, though, I notice that they're going to ROKU not satellite. They've been enjoying some of the older cartoon like Pink Panther and Rugrats, which is fine by me.
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