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Ready to cancel cable? It’s been a month since we cancelled our cable subscription and put in an indoor antenna and here are my thoughts on cord cutting so far:
We finally did it, we cancelled our cable TV subscription. I have been talking about this for a while now. I was ready and had a list of reasons in my head why this would be a good idea. First and foremost would be the cost savings. Secondly, it was just my husband and I living in our home full time now, thus fewer people watching television. Thirdly, with all the choices for streaming TV (and I love to stream) would we really miss it?
Photo by Matthew Henry on Burst
Considerations
We talked about each of our concerns ahead of time. My husband said he did enjoy watching the local news every once in a while and new episodes of Saturday Night Live when they come out in the Fall. I was worried that I would miss the feeling of just being able to turn on the TV and have the picture and sound there, for those times when you just had a few minutes and didn’t want to stream an entire episode of anything. (We already subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime and I have no interest in giving those up.) But also, there’s the NCAA Basketball Tournament. That’s my sports thing, I love it. I watch as much of it as I can every year.
Knowing our hesitations, we still decided to go ahead and cancel. One phone call later and it was done. The cable company said we had a week to turn in our equipment at the local store. I went the next day and did that. And that was it! We did, of course, keep our internet service but our bill was cut by more than half.
A Little Research
We discussed the possibility of getting an indoor antenna. I began researching but had no idea what kind of over-the-air signal we would be able to get at our house. I found a great website called tvfool.com They have a quick and easy process where you can enter your address and get a personalized list of broadcast channels (and signal strength) you should be able to receive. The list seemed pretty good. But who really knows, right?
Then, I went on Amazon and looked at the indoor antenna reviews. I did not want to spend much money since I had no idea if this was going to work at all. A lot of the antenna descriptions also mentioned that it is advisable to place the antenna high up on a wall and close to a window as well. (Most of the antennae are basically the size of a piece of notebook paper and flat). This was going to pose a problem for me. I did not want to have to look at a cord running across the room from the TV to an antenna placed high in a front window. But, I ordered one for less than $27 that checked all my boxes. I was ready to give it a shot. Here is the one we purchased and use now.
An Indoor Antenna
The antenna came and it was super easy to connect it to the television. At first, I sort of hung the antenna down the back of the TV. That didn’t work, not a good signal. But then I tried hanging it above the tv, behind a framed print on the wall. And it worked! I ran the auto-scan feature on my TV and it found a list of all the available channels. It ended up being over a dozen. The main networks we pick up are ABC, NBC, Fox and PBS. There are multiple sub-channels for each of those. Everyone’s experience will be different, you may get more or fewer channels. But I was amazed with the picture quality. Here is a photo where I’ve tried to capture what our our TV picture looks like (this was a PBS channel).
Final Thoughts
I have to say, getting an antenna definitely made the transition easier. My husband can watch the local news and SNL. I can quickly flip on the TV if I’m in the mood to just channel surf for a bit. And it’s all free! However, there was no guarantee we would have good results with the antenna but we were still willing to cancel. There are live streaming TV services out there like Sling and many others but the cost for those is about the same as cable so for us that would have been defeating the purpose. But it is an option.
I’m very happy with our decision to cut the cord on cable. It feels like we are more in control than when we were paying for a bunch of channels we never watched. Why did we wait so long?! The only thing I miss, which is kind of funny and didn’t occur to me beforehand, is the little digital clock from the cable receiver box. I glance over frequently to check the time and it’s not there. Just a habit I’ll have to break. Or maybe I need to find a cute clock for the family/living room. When it comes time for March Madness and the NCAA Tournament, I will look at my options for viewing. Maybe there will be a subscription I can get for just one month. But I will think about that when the time comes.
If you have any questions or comments about this post please feel free to comment below.
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