We are of the opinion that paying for TV is a huge rip off. I am referring to either cable or satellite. We've used both for a very long time and came to the conclusion that the programming is generally of poor quality (the content, that is) and not worth paying for. But I have to admit that we are not watchers of sports, except maybe the Olympics, so that might change the equation.
We got ourselves a digital antenna and hooked it up to our large plasma TV set and bought a Tivo box and a lifetime subscription. That way we can time-shift our watching of news, weather and PBS programming which is the best thing on the air, hands down.
And we are subscribers to Netflix, both Instant View and DVDs/BluRays through the mail. That's where our monthly money for TV programming goes--just for Netflix. We have NO monthly bill for TV because the antenna is paid for ($65) and the Tivo and the lifetime subscription are too. We figure we recouped our costs in less than a year by not paying for the satellite any more.
We can watch any movie that has come out on DVD right at home, and have our favorite PBS shows and like BBC World News America as a news source--a very good one, too, brought to us my PBS.
I would recommend adding up what you pay per year for what you are watching now and compare to a set up like ours. We had to mount the antenna on the side of our house, about ten feet up, to get a good signal out here in the suburbs, but what you get over the air is the original, uncompressed true HD TV, not the compressed digital given to you by the cable and satellite providers. And it is free, free, free! Since TV has gone digital, there is no such thing as a fuzzy or static picture. It's great. Once in a great while the picture will pixillate for a few seconds, due to some weather somewhere, but it is really not a problem and goes away right away.
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