Cutting the Cable Cord, Part 5

Only Murders in the Building with
Selena Gomez, Steve Martin
and Martin Short
Credit: Hulu

The last blog post about Cutting the Cable Cord (Part 4) was written in Jan. 2016. That was the first time our household experimented with cutting cable. We eventually re-attached Spectrum, the lure was just too strong. But now we have severed the connection again for two reasons: 1) our monthly bill for phone, internet and three cable boxes with DVR was over $300 monthly; and 2) streaming services have gotten much more sophisticated and inclusive of most of the networks TWC Spectrum provided. Another reason has popped up in the past week: 3) Spectrum is in a dispute with ABC and their various Disney channels, just as they were in a battle with CBS a few years ago--chronicled here in a blog post from 2013. So Spectrum has apparently cut off ABC. That spat will probably be resolved soon, but the first two considerations still loom large.

Contemplating Cutting the Cable Cord

Vicious with Frances de la Tour, Ian McKellen, and Derek Jacobi
is one of the shows that can now be seen online without cable TV.

It's finally happened. Media-obsessed nut that I am, I am actually considering eliminating cable television from my life and just going with Netflix, Amazon, and the Internet. There are several factors in this momentous decision:

1. Too expensive. I live in an area (Queens, New York) where Time Warner Cable appears to have a monopoly. We can't get Fios and I'm fairly sure Optimum, DirectTV and Dish are unavailable. My bundled bill which includes cable for three TVs, internet and phone comes to $190 a month.