It’s been one week since I cut the cord on cable. One week of not having live TV, sporting events, and 24 hour news. I thought I would capture a few thoughts 7 days into this fun little TV experiment.
Cost Savings
First off, my roommate and I are no longer paying $150/month for cable + TV. Instead we’re paying about $65/month which breaks out to $49 for internet, $8 for Hulu, and $8 for Netflix. That’s a 57% cost savings each month!
Content
Saving money is nice, but content is still king. The interesting part is that by cutting the cord on cable, I now have access to more content than I ever did through my local cable company. Thanks to my Roku player, I have access to over 350 channels for endless hours of streaming goodness.
Movies through Netflix, TV from Hulu, and I even get my tunes through Pandora for some nice background music…which is much better than putting the TV on some random show that I’m not watching anyway. Which leads me to my next bucket of observation: media consumption or viewing behavior.
Consumption/Behavior
If content is king, then media consumption is king maker. What’s most interesting thus far into my experiment is how I watch content. Back in my cable subscription days, BR or Before-Roku, I used to come home and turn on the TV, flip to a favorite channel, and sit down on the couch with my iPad or laptop.
What I realized is that I wasn’t really watching TV, but simply putting it on for some background noise. Contrast that with life after Roku. Now I have to actively select a program to watch. Which means I’m actually interested and engaged in what I am watching (either a movie on Netflix or TV show on Hulu.)
As for the occasional need for background noise? Now I have Pandora for that. No more noise, but tunes from my favorite bands served up through surround sound. Music to my ears.
What About You?
Are you happy with your cable or satellite content provider or do you have an itch to switch to content streaming?
