Let's Play "Do I really need it"

For years, I have bitched about cable companies. Every year it seems as though the price just keeps creeping up. If you call them up and complain, they will typically allow you to reduce the price increase, and they will offer you some free shit in return. I call it "shit" because that is exactly what it is. "Hey, if you stay with us, for just $10 more we will give you these 5 channels on Russian Art History and a live, Underwater Basket Weaving channel!!!"

Thanks, but no thanks. For the longest time, I have just kind of gone about my ways, continuing to call up various cable companies every 6 months, to complain about the high price, only to end up paying $5 more than I was before, and with some additional perk I will never use. About a year ago, I signed up for FiOS at my new house. I figured I would give them a try and see if things were really any different. You probably still see ads in your neighborhood about some bundle deal with the best cable package, some internet, and a phone line for $99 per month. That is the plan I am on right now, where the "phone line" I have is my existing Verizon cell phone. This is something that no matter what Comcast/Xfinity does, they cannot offer me a cell phone. So, for $99, this is not too shabby.

Well, then we get into the additional fees. The most annoying one is the rental fee for the boxes. With FiOS, and now with I guess almost all cable companies, you need a box for every TV in the house. The basic, no frills, standard definition box is $5.99 per month. I have two of those, one on a TV that gets little use, but would be almost useless otherwise. Then, we have the main box. This one has the DVR on it, High Def tuner, and Home Media DVR which allows me to watch the shows I record on this DVR in any room in the house (assuming I record it in Standard Def). How much for this little gem? $16.99 per month. That brings my equipment fees up to basically another $30 per month. This is for just 3 tvs. My parents house has probably 10 tvs. You would be looking at a minimum of $60 per month to cable all the TVs. If the TV doesn't have cable, then it is not as valuable either. So, hard to decide whether you would box all of them.

Recently, I started talking with Erin a lot about maybe removing cable. If I just did a really nice internet package with no bundle at all, it would cost in the neighborhood of $50 per month. This leaves me $80 per month to work with until I would be better off paying for cable. What could be done with this $80 to still enjoy the shows we like?

Well, I understand that Hulu will save the last 5 episodes of many of the shows we like to watch. For Erin and I, this list of shows includes, House, Law and Order CI, Law and Order SVU, probably Law and Order LA, NCIS, NCIS LA (who doesn't love them some crime shows!!), 30 Rock, Community, Office, Family Guy, Simpsons and usually we will try some other shows each season (this year it was Forgotten and Flashforward, in the past we had Pushing Daisies, Parks and Rec, and probably others).

From my work computer, I cant access Hulu, but I recall that some of these shows are offered for the last 5 episodes. These are free, and if we did a good job keeping up with them, we would not need to pay for any of these episodes.

Let's pretend though that we missed them. All of them. So we are looking at a worst case now. We have to pay for all of the shows. ITunes will sell them to you. And I guess that episode is then yours forever at $3. So, let's see how much it would cost to buy all of these episodes.

For House, there were 22 shows last season, so we are looking at $66. Simpsons had 23 episodes and Family Guy with 21, adding $132 to the total bringing us to $198. Law and Order SVU had 24 episodes, CI had 16, and LA is slated to have 13 episodes for now. This makes LaO $159, bringing our total to $357. 30 Rock had 22 episodes, Office had 26, and Community had 25 episodes, making Thursday Night cost $219, for a total of $576. NCIS had 24 episodes and NCIS LA had 24, making NCIS cost $144, and a new total of $720.

The $80 per month gives us $960 to use for the year until we have spent more than the cost of cable at today's price. It should be pointed out the prices above are assuming that we dont get any episodes for free, and that we buy each episode from ITunes. Throw in a few shows that we watch occasionally, and we might be getting closer to the $960.

Another thought. On September 21 2010, Law and Order SVU Season 11 comes to DVD (the season that just ended). The price is listed as $54. We would have paid $72 through ITunes. I also think that every year, around Black Friday, these shows go on sale. I think it is very possible to buy them for less than $40, but that means you have waited a full season to catch up on last season. It is a trade off. In return, you have now purchased these episodes and you own them forever, rather than just having them on a DVR that you watch once and then erase. Good or bad, this method makes these episodes yours.

The last thought on this issue is Sports. I mostly use my TV for live entertainment when I am watching sports. Rabbit ears will get me all of the Eagles Games, minus Monday Night Football. I will not see the majority of Phillies and Flyers games, but the radio will carry them. I would also be able to see golf majors, March Madness, Super Bowl, World Series, etc. I would lose some of my live sports, but to save how much?

Thoughts? Could this be done? What do you do with the time that right now you spend just watching a little TV? Would we all sleep better if we didn't watch TV at night? At what point do you just decide that the convenience of cable is worth the extra $XXX?