Am I really the only one who doesn't have cable TV?

[sugarsnappea]

We had people over last week who were shocked to learn that we didn't have cable. I didn't think much of it until this SATC thing was all over the boards, news, and newspapers. Am I really living in the dark ages by myself? :)

[brigmaman]

Do you mean no extra channels, or no tv at all?
We had no cable for a while because it wasn't offered where we live.
Now we have a sattelite but just the very basic channels which have always been enough. We don't really watch that much adult tv.

[sugarsnappea]

We have a TV, just no extra channels. We couldn't live without PBS! :)

edited for spelling error

[brigmaman]

Oh, then you're not the only one, I would think! I wouldn't miss the satellite if we got rid of it. My parents only have basic cable. When we first got the satellite, Directv offered a few free months of all the premium channels, so we had extras then. But we never watched them! To me it's just $50/month that we don't need to spend. Dh would miss it though.
ETA- I'm also thinking of getting rid of my cell...maybe I'm going through a crazy period. I only used around 20 minutes last month.

[peanut4us]

We've got regular cable but no premium channels like HBO, which is where I think SATC is. I've never seen an episode of that show, so I don't understand the brouhaha either :)

[hobey]

We have satellite but no movie channels so I've never seen SATC either. :)

Raquel
Nathan's Mom 12/19/03

[MartiesMom2B]

Normally we have the bare bones cable that is $13/month. It only has the local channels, pbs, and the local community cable channels, and TBS. DH was dying w/o ESPN and we got a deal for basic cable for $10.00 cheaper than normal. If we can't get this deal extended, we'll go back to $13 cable. I hate Time Warner and can't believe how they can charge a ton for cable and then only provide things if you have digital cable, which costs a ton more!

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[gour0]

No cable here. We order Netflix and have Rabbit Ears. :)

[amp]

Used to have Tier 1 cable, which was basic cable channels (TLC, Home & Garden, Animal Planet, etc), no premium or movie channels. Got too expensive, so we recently downgraded to basic cable. We get PBS, local channels, Disovery Health, our local weather, some shopping channels and one or two others. Not terribly exciting, but more affordable.

[loewymartin]

Nope, we only have basic cable (and that's just to get the local channels and PBS, not to get anything else!)

We have been toying with getting more channels, but honestly we watch PBS the most and even then it's not much! We decided it wasn't worth the extra monthly expense. I bought SATC on DVD to watch while working out. Yeah, I'm a few years behind (and now know how it's ends :-)) but it's entertaining to watch at 6am when the local channels are only showing infomercials.

Michelle - Mom to Alia born 5/16/02

[caleymama]

We currently only have very basic cable. It's about $12 a month and is the lower channels and PBS, but we also have The Weather Channel, QVC, and ESPN and ESPN 2. I didn't think ESPN or ESPN 2 were supposed to be included - DH is sooo happy that they are. We had digital cable this summer after we moved but re-prioritized our spending and got rid of it this fall after the introductory offer ran out. We've never had the premium movie channels.

[brigmaman]

Liz is that through Cablevision?

[caleymama]

We have Time Warner Cable - an improvement over the Cox Communications we had when we were in VA. I'm pretty sure my parents have Cablevision (closer to NYC).

[kristine_elen]

We have only the very minimum cable package for reception (we get NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC and TV Land and HGTV). I watch maybe an hour a day and feel that's too much -- I don't need to pay $40/month to sit on my behind even more! (We do get HBO's The Sopranos on DVD from Netflix.)

[Hallie_D]

No cable here--and we get the incredulous stares from guests all the time. You'd think we didn't have indoor plumbing! Our reception on CBS is so bad that it is like watching through a blizzard, so we don't even get to watch Survivor. However, we do get 3 different Spanish-language channels crystal clear. Too bad neither of us speak Spanish! We do have a dvd player and can rent many of the HBO-type shows from Blockbuster. We've done that for SATC, the Sopranos, and Six Feet Under. If only they wouldn't wait 100 years between the season and the dvd release...

[Jacksonvol]

We cut the cable cord this summer before DD's birth. We still get the "basic" stuff, but paying $50.00 per month so DH could run the remote over 100+ channels and moan about nothing being on was not worth it. Now he runs he remote over @ 15 channels and moans that nothing is on! My mother does find it incredible that we live without ESPN, but for times when we really want to see something, we either tape it at my office or we go to the office and watch it in our very nice basement.

I have found that we really watch PBS the most and our overall quality of life is better. Besides, DD is a whole lot more entertaining than most t.v., although she sometimes suffers from "wardrobe malfunctions" from a blowout!

Lisa

[suribear]

We have basic cable, just to get good reception. It really bugs me that we have to PAY for reception. We get discovery health and some other stuff with the basic.

We also love PBS (love those british comedies!). My family thinks we're nutso, but it's not like we watch much TV to being with, other than PBS.

Kris

[new_mommy25]

We live in a condo where luckily there is free basic cable. It goes up to channel 67 which is Bravo I think. If we didn't have free cable then we would probably have no cable or just the very very basic local channels which is about $5 a month. DH has always been a tv buff and for years we had ALL the channels, HBo, Max, Showtime etc. But I found that it is too many channels to watch anyway and I don't think we were getting our moneys worth. When I got pregnant with DS and decided to be a SAHM, we had to cut expenses and our digital cable and cable internet had to go. I do miss the internet tthough, dial up can be frusterating! :)

[papal]

We get basic limited cable (just ABC, NBC, PBS type of channels). I wanted to just get rabbits ears but stupid Comcast would have then upped my cable-internet so it was not worth it. We did have regular cable but with Leela around we do not miss it at all.. just talking about her poops and naps keeps us occupied. :)

[nitaghei]

We broke down and got satellite last year. Mostly because my parents were going to be here for 4 months, to help us with DS. We got the Indian channels while they were here - and it certainly make the visit a lot less isolating (I had to go back to work when DS was 6 weeks old :()for them.

Now we have a fairly basic package - no HBO or anything. But we do get the Food Network and Animal Planet and USA (Westminster! Yeaaa!) And Noggin - not that DS actually watches TV for more than 2 minutes ever.

But we did fine with rabbit ears until then, and I could easily go back - given that I watch maybe 15 minutes of TV a week - max. In fact I would be thrilled if we could get rid of the TV altogether.

Nita
mom to Neel 01/05/03
dog mom to a cocker and a PWD

[lisams]

No cable here - not even for the local channels. I haven't missed it a bit, and don't feel the need for more channels when we barely have time for the ones we have. My friends think we are the only ones in the world without cable. I love, love, love PBS!!!

Lisa

[luvbeinmama]

Nope, no cable, no TV at all except for video's & dvd's. I don't miss it at all (okay, probably would have been watching Friends until the finale, but that's about it). When we moved into our house (3 1/2 years ago) we decided to just not get it, and the TV is in the back room. I like it better this way.

[Thatchermom]

No cable here, either. Didn't even have a rabbit-ears type thing until a while ago. DH works with high school kids (the age that doesn't know that cable isn't a requirement like food, water...) and they showed up one night with an antenna for the roof so they could at least watch some game that they couldn't have read the score on otherwise, our reception is so bad...

[lizajane]

cheap-o basic plan here. i like tv. i do miss some of the channels. (trading spaces on TLC... reruns on TBS-which disappeared suddenly one day, so maybe i am supposed to have it... A&E, TNT coming in clearly-i just watch it fuzzy now) but dh isn't a espn standard male stereotype guy, so i don't have to worry about all that.

[brubeck]

We have no cable or sattelite. Instead we have a digital receiver. This ia a box that you buy at an electronics store. We have an antenna on the roof and the the digital receiver allows us to get the free over the air High Def channels from regular broadcasts. So we gert all the 7 major networks and a bunch of independent channels (including Spanish and Chinese ones and some weird HSN channel), all of them in digital quality. And if there is some rinky-dink channel that doesn't broadcast digital we get that too. All for free! I love it!

[LD92599]

You're not the only one! We never had cable TV when I was growing up..when DH and I got married and bought our home we opted instead for high speed internet rather than cable.

Afther 9/11 we lost our TV reception and it was just never the same after that, so we started w/ basic cable...not even basic, it's just the cable wires for reception...then the Yankee games went on YES...so we upped to Digital iO in order to get YES..so that's what we have now...still nothing on TV and we don't get any decent cable channels except for YES and CMT.

I was thinking of this exact comment though...am I the only one not in the loop w/ SATC?!

Laura
mom to William
3.5.2003

[sugarsnappea]

It is reassuring to know I am not alone. We do have high-speed cable access thru Comcast. They threatened to double the price unless I order some type of cable television. :( Hoping for DSL in my area soon...

[MartiesMom2B]

Liza:

They moved TBS from channel 7 to something in the 30s so its not in the basic channels anymore. If you flip towards the end of the spectrum you may get Food Network and the Home Decorating channel too, even though they might be fuzzy.

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[jal]

Rabbit Ears all the way!!!

[boys2enough]

You are not alone! We only have rabbit ears and the reception is really bad. We can only watch ABC (Oprah!), Fox, and PBS (thank goodness!). We are not doing this because we are concerned parents, we are simply too cheap to get cable. lol. The main reason is actually because DH hates the idea of drilling holes into the house or do anything to the house. Isn't that weird?

But even with only PBS, my 6 yo is watching way too much TV. I can't imagine what a struggle would be to keep him away from TV if we had cable... ;-)

We did have one kid who came over to "play," but immediately sat down on the sofa and reached for the TV remote. When I told him that we didn't have cable, he said, "That's ok. You do have satellite right?" And he's only 6! Than I had to break the news to him, "No, we don't have any video games either." He went home soon afterwards. lol.