Cable television. I hardly have to say more than those two words to unleash the shared feeling that we’re all being ripped off in one way or another. There are varying opinions as to how this universal scam will ultimately be brought to its demise. Google, it is prophesied, will be our digital savior soon. Very soon. I’m sure if one carefully rereads Revelation, the signs are nigh. But, last September I decided to take matters into my own hands—a sort of sacrilege, I suppose—and became a cord cutter. Rather, I became a partial cord cutter as I have retained my Wi-Fi.
With Wi-Fi, and an Amazon Stick, I am able to watch an untold number of movies and television programs through my Amazon Prime account. With the Netflix and PBS apps, content from another sector of my watching universe is delivered to my television screen. And when it’s time for the third season of Outlander to begin, I can pay an additional $9.00 for the Starz app for the two to three months during which the episodes will stream. The only drawback is that I have to wait a full 24 hours after first broadcast before I can watch—a small price to pay for saving $100 a month.
I first began contemplating the notion of opting out of cable television nearly three years ago while living in an apartment complex that mandated AT&T’s U-verse3 for all members of the community. Until then, I’d subscribed to the most basic of services, along with my Wi-Fi, reasoning that it was only a few more dollars a month with the bundle. I reasoned this even though I had given up watching standard commercial television almost 20 years ago. But I liked HGTV, Masterpiece, and the occasional movie that would crop up on the schedule, and the few extra bucks seemed worth it. With U-verse3, I then became a bit addicted to the DVR that came with the service, which further led me to believe that the now more than $100 extra I was paying was also somehow worth it. I was drinking the cable television Kool-Aid.
On a recent visit to my sister’s, she and I decided to watch the pilot for a new television series on ABC called Designated Survivor. The series had been running for several weeks already, but Susan was able to select OnDemand through her cable services so that we could watch the first episode commercial-free. It was good. Very good. We decided to watch the second episode. But as she clicked through the options, she could find the third episode, but not the second. We thought we had clicked something wrong so began the process again—searching, typing in what we wanted, selecting. But still, only the pilot and the third episode were listed. Determined to watch that second episode, she tried any number of other methods to locate the content. For the amount of money she is paying for her service, this should have been no problem. But there was no episode two to be found.
In the end, she downloaded a 30-day trial for Hulu that will auto-charge her credit card $9.00 a month once the trial is over so that we could watch episode two. It is this type of problem that led me to my decision to cut the cord. No matter what one pays for cable service, there is always something that alludes—there is yet another charge, another subscription, another content delivery system required to get exactly what one wants. The trick is to not want it. Or, in my case, to decide to pay only for what I want when I want it.
What will happen if Google finally takes over the entire industry is anyone’s guess. But, for now, I redistributed 100 extra dollars into my monthly budget, and I’m pretty happy about that.
Copyright DJ Anderson, 2016
