General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How about I cut my cable bill down by not being forced to carry all those relgious [View all]Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)You won't get the non-local channels, but on the rare occasions when something good is on them (and their quality has deteriorated to a disgusting degree--did you know that A&E, now a true crime and "reality" channel, was once touted as and pretty much functioned as a commercial alternative to PBS, with arts documentaries and performances and foreign-made dramas?), the content is on Hulu Plus, iTunes, or Netflix pretty quickly.
I have a Roku in addition to basic-basic cable, which gives me two PBS services and MHz Worldview on public access--and MHz Worldview has recently added a line-up of mysteries and movies from Europe at 9PM EST seven nights a week.
On my Roku, I can access my Netflix and Hulu Plus Instant queues (206 items in my Netflix queue, many of the Criterion Collection movies and other movies in my Hulu Plus queue). I could access Amazon Prime, too, but everything I want to see is already on Netflix or Hulu. In addition, there are several channels that show old movies and TV shows that are in public domain, foreign language channels, worldwide news, Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, channels devoted to hobbies, etc. at no additional cost. You can even get fundamentalist or right-wing channels, but not unless you specifically choose to put them in your line-up.
The Roku gives me more content than I have time to watch, and I chose all of it.
If the cable companies won't give us a la carte cable, by gum, we can make up our own. There was a posting about getting rid of cable on PBS's Facebook page, and it got 486 responses from people who had "cut the cord." Most cited the annoyance of paying for channels they never watched and would never watch.
By refusing to offer a la carte cable, the cable companies have cut their own throats.