I was a longtime DirecTV subscriber, having had the service since 1996. For the past year, in parallel with DirecTV, I’ve been playing around with an amplified RCA antenna, which was only around $40, but gives me access to the major networks. The quality is far higher than I got with DirecTV standard definition service, plus I get a number of interesting sub channels. At one time, I had DirecTV service on all 4 TVs, but to cut costs, I dropped the service on two of the TVs and have been using antenna TV and Rokus on those.
About 2 months ago, I saw a news item about Tablo, and I bought a 4 tuner model, along with the recommended hard drive. I had considered TiVo, but the monthly fee was a big turnoff. As I have 4 TVs in my home, I already had RoKus on most of them, so getting the Tablo was a good choice for me, and because of the Tablo, I purchased an additional Roku for the 4th TV. I wanted to play with the Tablo to see how good it was before making the plunge. It’s not perfect, but it’s suitable for what I wanted to do.
Anyway, after evaluating what I watch on satellite, I finally came to the realization that most of what I watch is on the major broadcast networks; ABC, CBS, NBC, TheCW, and occasionally, PBS. The advantages I had with DirecTV were that I could watch the FOX News channel (a lot!) and I also got the east coast network feeds out of New York. Living in the Pacific time zone, I can’t tell you how much of an advantage it was to be able to watch the network shows 3 hours earlier, and I’ll miss that a lot, but I won’t miss the $106/month bill.
This morning, I called DirecTV and finally cancelled the service. They asked a few questions, and I told them I’m replacing it with antenna TV, Hulu Plus and Netflix. They offered to knock off $20/month for a year, asked if I’m a big sports fan, how I’d get movies (Netflix, Vudu, etc.) but didn’t try a real hard sell on me. Maybe they could tell my mind was made up, or maybe they’ve heard this story before.
The service will shut off at midnight tonight, but it actually won’t be a shock to my system, as I’ve been weaning myself off DirecTV and getting my fill of entertainment from antenna TV, Netflix and Hulu Plus. I expect the way in which I watch TV will now change because of losing the east coast network feeds, where prime time for me has been 5-8 PM instead of 8-11 PM. Now, I’ll simply record everything I want to see and watch it the next day or later.
I’ll continue to watch for other streaming services to see if anything catches my attention. I probably won’t subscribe to the new HBO, Showtime or Sling TV streaming services, but may check out the 30 day trial for $1 and see what The Blaze has to offer.
