Will you be cutting the (cable) cord this year?


About a month ago, I read this article in the Huffington Post about some 200 000 Canadian households possibly cancelling their cable this year. This has led me to reexamine my own relationship with a certain Blue Company.

After my mom cancelled CNN, along went a bunch of other channels like CP24, TLC, and a few others. Apparently, Bell groups channels in “packages”, so you can’t just order/cancel 1 channel. So what I’m now left with is quite pathetic!

I honestly don’t know why cable companies offer soo many number of channels, when they literally show the same thing: CTV (I miss CP24!), crappy talk shows mid-day, and a bad movie of the week about killer wasps in the evening. 🙁 I wish that they would offer better quality programming as opposed to quantity of channels with nothing on.

Sadly enough, I’m held hostage by PVR and the Galaxie music channels. The majority of my entertainment can be found online.

What about your household, do you have cable, and if so, any plans to cut the cord in ’12?


105 responses to “Will you be cutting the (cable) cord this year?”

  1. Sally says:

    With Eastlink we don’t have to have all the channels in bundles, you can order them separately.

    cables a luxury we will not be getting rid of. I never listen to the music channels via cable. We have sirius and can live stram from the comp, or just listen to cds.

  2. Orv says:

    I dont have cable, and havent had cable in probably close to 5 years or so. I stream everything I wanna watch.

  3. Jen says:

    I don’t really watch TV. I watch all of my shows online for free on the channels websites if I’m interested in something . . .

  4. jeff says:

    we have cut our cable bill…. we have increased our internet speed and have hooked our tv with all our computers using a wireless network…

    Most cable companies post there show’s on line the next day, and you can watch it, just like how you would watch youtube…
    we dont miss cp24…because we can now watch anything we want, anytime we want…and most of the time it has no commercials..

    NOT to mention… we are also saving a ton on phone bills too… we signed up for magic jack… (after hearing about it for years) and it works… long distance phone calls (us/canada) anytime for free… three way calling, call display and more… easy to set up.. signed up for 6 years… it cost me about 1.80 a month (instead of the 55 dollars i was paying with bell)

    http://www.themagicjack.ca/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=3005

  5. jessica says:

    I would be lost without CP24 and HBO!!

  6. V says:

    If you live in Southern Ontario, you can get a good amount of channels with an antenna.

  7. supermommy says:

    our contact is up soon thinking I maybe one of those 200000

  8. ray says:

    We live in 905 GTA and invested in an antenna, now we catch CTV HD, CBC HD, CityHD, ABC HD, FOX HD, CBS HD, NBC HD and PBS for free. All with an attic antenna setup.

    Caution you need it takes some fine tuning to catch all these. For basic setup indoor, you will still get CBC and CTV without much effort.

  9. Theresa says:

    We have satellite through Bell. I would miss my A&E and TLC, but I could live without tv. Growing up my parents got rid of tv completely and I survived. It was hard being a child in the ’80’s explaining why we had no tv. People always assumed we were Jehovahs Witnesses:)

    I wouldn’t miss my $80 a month satellite bill. My husband would not do well without Leafs tv.

  10. wes says:

    Dropped my cable tv portion saved $100/mth. Do I miss it. Yes. No food network. No PBS and No pvr. Is saving $100/mth worth the sacrifice…yes.
    One advantage of using the internet for tv that has always been their is I get access to shows that are not on cable right now. I do have an antenna and get the local stuff in HD but usually never watch it cept for the news randomly. By the way the reason that eastlink can offer single channels instead of pkgs is they are one of the most expensive cable companies in Canada.

  11. LifeisBeautiful says:

    I have switched from the digital package to the “basic” package.
    I do miss TLC, disney for the kids, TSN for my husband but have no plans to switch back. Will definitely not be going to an antenna though. I thought they were switching away from analog cable anyway…

  12. Lori says:

    I dropped cable and just download shows or watch online. Basic cable is too expensive for what you get.

  13. George says:

    Shaw gave me a real good deal that made my internet and phone cheaper if i added cable for a year so i had cable for a year but after the deal was over cable tv was gone again. And i don’t miss it.

    There is never anything on i want to watch or when i want to watch tv.

    I can get everything i want to see from the library or online so why waste the money for a bad product.

  14. NatashaStagg says:

    I cut mine a couple months ago and upgraded to faster internet with a different company instead. Netflix and online T.v is more then enough for us!

  15. Vicky says:

    We are thinking about dropping our cable this year too as we have Netflix and find we are watching it way more than our cable. The shows we do want to watch on TV we can usually catch by going to a particular channel’s website and catching the episode there.

  16. carotte says:

    I never had the cable. I upgraded my antenna with a converter. It cost me a 100$ and since I’m near the border, I catch US TV shows.

  17. Cheers says:

    Trying to cut the big 3 out of everything… Moved to a new city (Ottawa) & decided to try antenna + streaming. Crossing fingers that it’ll be a viable option – in any case, internet + TV should come up to $50/month, which is a vast improvement over what I was paying before (roughly 1/3!!!). The only thing I’ll suffer withdrawal symptoms from is the inability to watch Habs games… Mind you, the way they’ve been playing this year it’s actually a relief.

    It’ll be interesting to see how well the whole thing goes, I’ll find out next week!

  18. Orual says:

    We had cable a short while, but when i priced out what i was paying per show that I couldn’t watch online… it was way to pricey. We actually just watch dvd’s pretty much now. We never buy them, just take them out of the library, or borrow them. Our budget is way to tight to justify the outragous cable prices.

    I thought I would miss it, but I really don’t. It really doesn’t take long before you stop carring about the story lines.

  19. stephanie says:

    I would not be able to get rid of my cable. I think I would miss it more than the kids, lol. For my family, it is worth the cost.

    I do have Eastlink and don’t find it expensive at all. I have a full cable package (except the movie networks), phone with every feature, unlimites long distance in Canada, and unlimited internet for $130/month. I paid almost that for my satellite with Bell!

  20. Ed says:

    To Lifeisbeautiful: analog antenna is the old version of antenna with crappy reception. Antenna nowadays is digital and offers channels in HD often not compressed like the version you pay cable for.

    I live in Vancouver and get 9 channels for free in HD from my antenna hooked up to my pc. That way I can use it as a pvr and watch it on all the xboxs in the house. I really want to cut cable it’s just hard to convince my gf who is a reality tv junkie. With so much streaming options now I’m surprised the cable companies can charge so much for so little good content. Shaw forces me to buy three tiers of sd channels just so I can get the HD tier. And I never watch the sd channels so that’s a complete waste. Can’t wait to cut it. You Gould do an article about free over the air television and inform canadians about free local HD channels they can receive.

  21. Aly says:

    I have two PVR’s with good bundles. I think the money is worth it, I could spend $80 easily on other things. I just ask my service provider for any deals and we manage to save 20% off each and have a free PVR.

  22. kristina says:

    I have about a year and a half left on my contract and am thinking about cutting the cable. My kids already watch tv shows on the computer and they like their movies as well, so I am sure that they could live without it. I do like TMN and the HBO shows, but I am sure that I could live without those. Very interested in the magic jack….I just looked into it and hope they are still around when I get to cancelling my home phone. I do not think that I could live without the internet though…infact I know that I cannot live without it, but for that my options are limited to Rogers. I was going to have Bell when I moved to my home but they do not service my house for highspeed internet (even though I live in the middle of a big city??) so I am limited there….things to think about. For the lot I am paying $250 a month!

  23. SeriousSally says:

    Heck no! We cut so much already our cable is one of our guilty pleasures. We just switched to Fibe Tv with Bell, we’ll see how that goes. So far loving Food Network in HD. We were told by the installer that CRTC will be forcing cable companies to change how they sell their channels. Supposedly they will no longer be able to force theme packages on customers, and customers will have the option to purchase channels individually. I hope this truly is the case.

  24. FallenPixels says:

    We already got rid of cable, with an antenna and HD box we get plenty of channels, more than we watch, and apart from him missing the sports packages (we have an online account to watch them now, still cheaper than cable) we don’t miss it 99% of the time

  25. mel says:

    I watch tv on the net and have netflix. Cable is a waste of moneyt

  26. Marcy says:

    We dropped Cable a few years ago and have been using an Antenna. I don’t miss cable and I love saving money.

  27. G8kpr says:

    Left Cable over a year ago, have never looked back.

    Aside from all the poor programming. They have actually increased the amount of commercials in a show. So basically you’re paying to watch advertising.

  28. Natasha says:

    We cut cable last week, saving $90/month and now have an antenna but only get 7 free HD Canadian channels. When spring comes my husband will put the antenna on the roof so I think we’ll get more channels.

    I’m looking into Apple TV, it might be a great option for other specialty channels. Anyone have ATV?

  29. Island Lady says:

    Serious Sally: Also told by installer: “We were told by the installer that CRTC will be forcing cable companies to change how they sell their channels. Supposedly they will no longer be able to force theme packages on customers, and customers will have the option to purchase channels individually. I hope this truly is the case.” Installer here said “within the year”. Sooner rather than later.

  30. vibrantflame says:

    We have never had cable or satellite. We’re big Internet users, so we’ve always went with an unlimited plan (been fortunate enough to always have at least one company offering one were we live) and just downloaded whatever we wanted to watch. And within the last year we subscribed to Netflix, mostly the kids use it for watching children’s shows but still worth it at $7.99/month. And we use MagicJack for our phone service. So for unlimited Internet, Netflix, and our telephone service we pay approx. $83/month. Yes sometimes I do wish we had cable or satellite, as I like it when we’re at the in-laws just having the television on in the background and tuning in or out of shows as I wish BUT for me it’s just not worth the extra $$ (I’ve priced it out and it would be quite a bit more for us).

  31. Gwaiju says:

    my friend did not have cable or telelphone landline before… but shaw had a really GOOD promotion… for $29 dollars a month and for 12 months.. you can have ALL three services..including high speed internet…. ! i have to admit that’s a crazy good deal !

  32. Motherof2hyperboys says:

    We got rid of cable over a year ago. We have an antenna and it pulls in a lot of the American channels and I get to see my 90210 🙂 which isn’t on Global or on any Canadian networks anymore. We paid $60 for that and whatever we can’t watch from the antenna we download. Its GREAT!

  33. Cryssyfur says:

    Can’t wait til we are able to pick what channels we want. Hope the CRTC pushes this through. My bill with internet, cable and phone with Shaw is $156.69 per month….. outrageous.

  34. Amy says:

    We dropped cable in 2008. At first, I experienced some withdrawal, but dusted off our rabbit ears and “enjoyed” the dozen or so channels that could come in clear. I would have to agree with an earlier poster that these channels offer some truly BAD programming, but we made it work.
    In August 2011 when analogue was transfered to digital signals, we put away the rabbit ears and have enjoyed our favourite programs online entirely. Its a different lifestyle – gotta get used to watching the episode a day later than most, but its doable. To save $300+ a year, I can develop my virtue of patience 🙂 My parents still think we watch TV on our lap tops – they haven’t quite grasped the fact that we’ve connected our computer tower to our TV and it works wonderfully well. Cable is definitely heading in the direction of Blockbuster, in my humble opinion.

  35. Jenn says:

    We will not waste money on cable anymore, 6 yrs gone! We have a boxee and an apple tv, boxee is amazing, hooks right up to the tv, never need cable again. Apple tv is too restrictive and could wind up costing way more than cable ever could.

  36. Mandy says:

    I mainly watch shows on Globaltv.com and ctv.ca. There are a few HBO shows that I’d like to watch, like Dexter, but I make do. I’d never get cable, huge waste of money. Having said that, I do miss the food network. Check out Teksavvy, I’ve been super impressed with their internet and phone service thus far.

  37. Annie says:

    We are thinking about cutting our satellite with Bell. It’s very expensive, and most of the time we don’t really enjoy what we’re watching. (I don’t find ‘blood & guts’ entertaining. So many shows are macabre.) It would be a big savings, but I’m not convinced yet. I would miss “Coronation Street.”

  38. bradeau says:

    I’ll never go back to cable. I’ve been watching HD programming over the air for the last few years. A good amount of channels in Glorious HD.

    Don’t miss cable at all.

  39. curls says:

    No cable – digital antenna – signal is as good as cable! just not so many channels

  40. carlyincanada says:

    We dropped CNN/Fox & lost TLC & a few others…paying $85 for basic cable & internet…wish we could choose our own channels…not much on tv anyway!!

    What are some good sites to watch online?? I tried Letmewatch.com but can’t seem to get it to work as a pop up sign in box keeps coming up!!

    Thanks!

  41. carlyincanada says:

    BTW..when we were young (60’s/70’s) we had about 5 channels & always great shows…now 100’s of channels & nothing good on TV!! 🙁

  42. Scarecrow says:

    I have free cable for my condo but haven’t used it since the summer, If I was paying for it I would have cut it off long ago since I rarely use it.

  43. Mary Anne says:

    We just switched down to the basic package – fed up with the amount of drivel that’s on tv and what you have to pay for it. We’re trying this for awhile and are seriously considering dropping the whole thing.

  44. since getting Netflix we rarely turn the cable on…would love to get rid of it, but we are on a contract, and my hubby wants it during CFL season (GO RIDERS!)

  45. Johnny Matt says:

    1.5 years without Bell…. DL or stream all shows. Vuze with the PS3, you don’t need much more… Netflix is also great. WIth Ontera, there is no limit so Bobs you uncle!

  46. sabina says:

    hmm well my Rogers bill is going up by $4.06 so we are thinking of cancelling it but we don’t know yet. hubby downloads movies for us and the kids all the time, I normally miss my show and end up watching it on the computer anyway. But the kids really love their play house Disney time

  47. Kiesh says:

    I have netflix and the Boxee Box. I love it! Totally agree cable is way too expensive.

  48. Gordon S. says:

    I haven’t had my TV hooked up to my satellite dish for the past 3 years and I don’t miss it. Watching TV puts your brain in some sort of alpha state and makes you passive. Anyways, whatever I need to watch, I do it on the web. I do have a 43″ LCD TV and can watch DVD videos on it though.
    I find there’s not really much of interest on TV these days anyways. Back in the Seventies, TV was much better with variety shows like Sonny and Cher, The Carol Burnett Show, Donny and Marie, etc. Nowadays, there’s none of that. There are hundreds of channels, yet the quality of programming is at an all-time low, in my opinion. The quality of the TV picture has gone way up with high definition, yet, most of the time, the content is pretty bad.

  49. Corbinx says:

    I didn’t get cable until I was 21 and I’m not willing to part with it yet! I considered cutting it when my maternity leave is done but I figured it’s our cheap family entertainment since we very rarely go out to movies or buy/rent DVDs, lol. We bundle our cable with phone and internet so it’s pretty reasonable.

  50. Bigal says:

    WOW! Learned so much reading your posts! Thanks! I personally do not watch TV anymore; been over a year. Since they said they were gonna go digital etc. Went Cold Turkey! It was hard but do-able! I miss the connection that I had with people discussing this and that about the previous nights’ shows and endings; but now I have more time for other things. A need was created and an addiction was created, people are addicted to their telivision shows etc; Think about it, TV is a drug of sorts…Who still plays board games after the dinner dishes are done? How many of us Ask how the other’s day went between episodes or commercials? Anybody playing outside anymore? When I was a kid we had antenna tv and got 4 channels. We played outside after school till dinner and then watched family shows till bed time or played board games and connected to each other alot more. With time sadly we drifted appart. I call my sisters and end up interupting their favorite shows etc.(What can you say, call you later…) Snowball fight anyone? I dunno, sometimes I just lite a whole bunch of candles and listen to the radio while reading a paperbacks(borrowed from the library for free instead of paying for a “Kobo” download.) I know I’m a dying breed and you probably find me ancient(49 this year) but I hate giving away the little bit of cash flow I have.(And it is little; the cash flow that is!). Of course I do feel out of the loop sometimes(News, awards shows, The Food Network etc) but you can create other addictions that are less costly. I guess it’s just a different lifestyle. We consume and consume and need to make more money for our new addictions. Well no offence to anyone, but whatever floats your boat. Whatever makes you happy although happiness seems to have a heffty price tag sometimes.
    Cheers all. Thanks again for all the information. Writing this by candlelight and classical music on the radio(Really).

  51. dizzyb says:

    No cable or satellite, we don’t watch TV. The TV is used for watching DVDs or using the Wii or Xbox. We’ll stream an occasional program, but we’re more CBC radio junkies.

  52. cuintimbuck2 says:

    I have opted out of cable since I moved out on my own last April and I save money by doing this. I personally think cable companies expect you to get a PVR with the package because our lifestyles are so busy these days that it’s rare people actually sit down to watch tv at the time their show starts.

    I have been successfully downloading all my tv shows and unlimited movies off the net for 3 years now and I have no plans of changing to cable.

  53. Kavita Thavundayil says:

    I just cancelled cable… It’s been two days since I haven’t had cable tv. I now get most of my content online… and to be perfectly honest- I’m jonesing for the news at 6pm, and watching canada AM before I leave for work.

    I think the cable stations have been hosing us for a long time. In addition to paying a fee on one end- we are also paying for the privilege of being marketed to! SO they are making money from us in 2 ways… That is SO IRRITATING! Anyhow – I really hate my cable company (rogers in ontario) and am glad to be rid of them!

  54. rob says:

    i have 1 year left on my rogers contract, basic cable for 16/mo plus $2/mo for HD programing. After that if i can pick up free OTA HD (cbc, ctv, global, fox, cw, A-chanel, ch) ill do that, otherwise I’m sure ill be able to get a similar deal as i have now.

  55. wes says:

    I think that currently we are a minority of the tv viewers. Just wonder what is going to happen when we become the norm. The current business model will cease to function and this means content provider and creators will think of a way to provide revenue. As much as I like getting tv shows for free (not really computers, internet access, all cost $$$$) I don’t mind paying something to prevent those people go out of business. I do think cable tv is over priced.
    One thing I did pickup from reading these posts that some people (hopefully not the majority) are still are coming from a mind set of turning on the tv to see what’s on. It’s this habit that creates complaints about 100 channels and nothings on. There is tons of content that is Educational, involving, mind expanding and simply entertaining. But you first you have to find it. Go to the Internet and do some research. TV.com, tvguide.com, zap2it.com for general all inclusive coverage. Local and national newspapers often have good columnists. Plus there are lots of sites dedicated to very specific area’s like reality shows, sci-fi etc. Take the ratings on TV.com just like IMDB, with a grain of salt. They can often be skewed by a very narrow demographic. They are great for episode research like finding if u missed one or when the next one will be broadcast or who was the special guest star etc.
    I get a special thrill out of watching a show that is not available on regular cable. I remember watch Veronica Mars in HD and BBC content like Long Way around/down way before it was available in any form here. Currently I am watching Sherlock Season 2 which was makes Robert Downey Jr. version look like a comedy. Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, the writing plus the cinematography make for great tv. It was broadcast on Sunday night and I watch it on Monday. It might show up here in a month or a year on cable.

  56. Natalka says:

    We’ve only had cable the past few years – before that were just on bunny ears. We have basic digital – wish we could upgrade to the next level, but it’s SO much more expensive. For those shows I miss on specialty channels, I try to find online to watch.
    That, and internet, are our ‘entertainment’ expenses, we don’t go to movies or rent them, etc.

  57. Pablo42 says:

    Well said Bigal (post 48) – Cheers! 🙂

  58. Nayya says:

    With Videotron, we can choose the channels we want. The more you choose the cheaper it gets per channel ofc, but with the PS3 and Wii plugged in, not much time for TV itself so we have only 15 channels that we watch the most.

  59. Spudislander says:

    No cable for more than 8 years. We stream and we subscribe to Netflix. The best part, besides the savings, is that our kids are not inundated with brainwashing advertisements! CANCEL YOUR CABLE! 🙂

  60. Nettie says:

    We also have an antenna. Other than a few select shows, we normally only have the TV on for background noise as we go about our daily routine. We both work all day, so only really have it on in the evening and the weekends. I watch most of my TV shows online. I love doing it this way. If you want to start watching a new show that’s been on awhile, you can watch as many episodes in a row that are available, like your own “marathon” to get caught up.

    A friend of mine is a “cottage” for her sister. Meaning her sister has satellite, and they got an extra one to hook up to their “cottage”, which is my friends house, miles away. They split the bill, so it’s $30-ish a month rather than $60-ish. I still don’t think that I would get my money’s worth even by doing that anymore. I’ve gotten used to online tv shows.

  61. tattood_princess says:

    I haven’t had cable in about 3 years and I couldn’t be happier. Because of both my sister and I working full time jobs we were never home to watch what we wanted anyway, and PVR was handy but the extra expense was hardly worth it. I have a PS3 hooked up to my tv and we found 2 websites that are compatible with it’s web browser (Fastpasstv and projectfreetv) and can still watch what I want at MY convenience on my 42 inch tv. I’d rather pay more for internet and have more streaming than pay for dozens of channels I have no interest in watching. We have 6 devices (iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, 2 laptops and my PS3) hooked up to the wi-fi, and pay less than we would for cable on one tv. And now I don’t get stuck watching pointless and annoying commercials when I feel like watching a tv show too. Cable just doesn’t make sense anymore.

  62. kaybee.cook says:

    Well I have cut the cord years ago. When my family moved to the country when we built our new home, we decided we weren’t interested in getting cable… all we watch is cbc through the rabbit ears! Most of the time great programming, especially the morning shows for our small kids, all educational. OH and I don’t pay a thing….Cant beat that!

  63. Khrystena says:

    We haven’t had cable for 3 years now. couldnt’ justify the cost. Watch a ton online and we bought our own PVR for $150 at future shop to record off tv from our antenna we have.

  64. Dobbsie says:

    Cancelled the red guys last month. Had the blue guys come in with all services. Im saving $100 a month now! The red guys are way to overpriced.

  65. SavingMentor says:

    Definitely no need to have cable at all. You can get practically everything you’d want to watch online free and legally. It’s like having a PVR that you don’t ever have to set to record with much fewer commercials. Invest some money and set up a home theater PC to your big screen and upgrade your internet. You’ll save a bundle and still be able to watch everything you want.

  66. Sara says:

    I don’t have cable or a land line for my phone. The Bell bill was $50 a month, and for what? Telemarketer calls? Anyone who matters just calls the cellphone! The cable is garbage too, anything really worth watching can be found online.

  67. Dawn Marie says:

    We’ve never had cable or satellite…not even growing up. We watch pretty much everything online. The only thing our TV is used for is for the kids to watch their DVD’s and VHS tapes. There isn’t much worth watching on TV anymore anyways….

  68. Gazpache says:

    we just actually added to our cable. We just got a PVR through the cable company and I find I’m actually watching a lot more tv than I used to. It’s so much nicer when you can watch it when you want and skip through the commercials! 5 hours of Coronation Street becomes an easy 3. I can’t wait for the CRTC to finally make it so we can pick and choose channels. There’s so many we pay for but don’t use.. but we use another channel in that “bundle” a lot so we have to get them all.

  69. angela says:

    We cut the blue cord a year ago. Our children are 4 and 6 we found them watching too much tv and decided to cut it off. With the ability to download or stream live fed, we have changed the way we think about tv. We still allow our children to watch shows but under controlled environment and we don’t pay 90$ a month to do it. We have not looked back. My husband is a huge sports fan but even he said he can find stuff on the internet to watch.

  70. Shanna says:

    we canceled our cable last summer before we moved after getting netflix I like being able to censor what my kids can watch (yes I understand different time zones but, really I wasn’t getting my cable from China so why was I getting all the nudity and violence at 10 am MST?)When we moved to Manitoba we moved to “the country” so we are really too busy for cable and we still have netflix which is actually getting a lot better for movie releases and tv series have found lots of hidden gems that we never saw before

  71. AmberLab says:

    We cut the cable cord years ago to save money. DH and I only watched CBC and CTV anyway, and we get that with the absolute basic package. Other shows we wait for it to come out on DVD at the library – unless we really love a series, then we buy it on sale. Same for the kids, watch KidsCBC or PBS mornings or get movies at the library or buy them second hand. There’s usually the option to watch shows online too. I don’t feel that we’re missing anything.

  72. orchidgirl says:

    We cut the cord months ago and love it, all are shows are online and my kids are small so we have netflix for all the kids show too..never going back, and it 1200 a year back in my pocket.

  73. HEROINE says:

    I have no intention of getting rid of cable. I don’t care for streaming and I’m perfectly happy with my 50″ HD and PVR. My husband and I both play sports in the evenings, so one of us usually goes out while the other stays home with the kids. After the kids go to bed at 7:00 pm there’s not a tonne to do, so the TV is pretty cheap entertainment.

  74. Danifish says:

    Got rid of cable almost a year ago!! A month or so ago we signed up for the “new” basic package and cancelled it a week later, what a joke!!

    Netflix and streaming is more then we could ever watch! Plus we found this great website that lets us get the US version of Netflix and it has current shows and movies!! There is more choice then we know what to do with!!

  75. Kim says:

    We cut the cable, subscribed to Netflix and don’t miss the network crap at all! We’ve discovered seasons worth of great shows, documentaries we’d never have known of, and cool nature shows and movies. We don’t have to deal with commercials and are saving a bucketload of money every year. We also spend less time mindless viewing and only watch what seems like it’d be truly worth it.

  76. /\/\ix says:

    I find that a full year of Netflix is much better cost wise than 2, maybe 3, months of cable.

  77. heather says:

    I unfortunately have not cancelled but I have downgraded to BASIC cable which is close to farmer vision with a few extra channels we pay $10 less a month and watch all our favorite shows online. TIP hot spot shield allows you to have an IP blocker so all your fav USA shows/ networks like FOX ABC NBC and WB are accessable to you up here in Canada! That is what we do. We also found netflix a waste of $8 a month since its all old movies that we either own or haven wanted to watch.

  78. SL says:

    I have Boxee Box and just stream everything to my tv.

    You dont really need cable or satalite since everything is on the web a few hours after it air on tv

  79. nightlite says:

    Hell no. TV is like a family friend. It is constantly on. Kids love Treehouse and Disney Jr and I love my PVR and time shifting. I have friends that have Netflix etc and their bandwidth bills are almost equal if not more than what our monthly cable package is. Even if I did wireless streaming I can’t fathom sitting and trying to find shows to watch on my computer to watch on my TV. Just turn on the remote and go.

  80. mojo says:

    I have only ever had basic cable. I find I hardly ever watch TV as there is not many good programs out there.I could go without any of it at all. However, my husband has a different view. So we settled for bacis. There are so many better things to do than watch TV. My kids play Lego for hours, play outside and I read. It’s better to be living life than watching other’s pretend life on TV. Just my humble opinion.

  81. request says:

    for people that have no money in the budget for cable, it would be of great value if a detailed list of instructions could be posted as to what is required to receive over the air free local broadcast via TV.

  82. hshamshu says:

    We cut cable at home and now save ~$65/month. We watch everything online, including live sports – there are sites you can watch them on. We use TekSavvy for home phone and Internet (~$70/month) plus a MagicJack for long distance calls. We put the savings toward movie nights and other little treats.

  83. julyprincess says:

    I don’t have cable either. I just watch everything online.

  84. Natalka says:

    Interesting reading others’ habits – I listen/watch some shows online while I’m doing other stuff on the puter, but it’s not like the family can watch on our small monitor.
    Would love to have a PVR – but can’t afford it; am currently looking for another VCR as our last two (got free) have bit the dust. As for the suggestions to hook up stuff to your home theatre and big screen tv, well that gave me a chuckle, we have a 20″ tube tv.

  85. Little One says:

    I have Rogers cable and absolutely love them, they are on the verge of doing some really great things with their packages, one of my friends in London ONT, “trialed” a new package where they will be paying only for the basic package (which is “mandatory”) and they are able to pick what other channels they want to take, like CNN, etc… I dont understand people who continue to use Bell service, the customer service is horrendous and their service capability is far inferior… Since I switched to Rogers I can say i’m a lot happier and have alot more of thier products, i’ve slowly converted over most of my services to rogers now…

  86. masid says:

    you couldn’t pay me to deal with bell or rogers ever again. Our home is strictly bell and rogers free. we have yak internet and home phone, wind mobile cell phones and we stream anything we want to watch and have a digital antenna. It’s perfect and stress free. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received duplicate bills, false charges, and other scams from bell and rogers. not to mention their terrible customer service. When i call yak, i get a person right away ( i swear i dont work from them lol. just pleased with the service)

  87. Mist_ynight says:

    I would NEVER give up my cable. About 6 years ago I had Bell sattelite and we were surrounded by trees. When the spring came and the leaves filled in we lost our signal. I went all summer with no cable and would never do it again. I really missed my shows.

  88. Deb says:

    We cut our cord as well, but back in the summer of 2011. We couldnt be happier… Cogeco sucks big time!
    We went with Bell Satellite & get over 1200 channels. Mind you I only watch a few select few. Hubby watches all the others. We got 2 receivers, one dish at no cost, and our monthly bill is less than what Cogeco was charging us!
    Our phone & internet are also with Bell, so we get a good discount & its all well worth it. Im a happy customer. Only wish I would have done this sooner with Cogeco!

  89. shmegz says:

    a couple months ago we decided we were done with paying so much for Bell satellite. We now have netflicks and we are working on an digital antenae. We will be getting 25 shows with that.

  90. karalin9 says:

    I’ve been without cable for a year now. Thanks to my tech-savvy hubby, I’m not missing anything!

    I would STRONGLY recommend a Boxee Box by DLink, it’s like a mini computer that hooks up to your TV. I can watch Netflix, it has a browser, so I can watch all of my shows online, and it networks to the main computer so I can access all of our downloads.

    I went through a period of withdrawal for about a month, but once I got used to watching everything a day late, (and thinking about all the money we were saving), I was all set!

  91. sfaraz says:

    check this usb im using for 2 years i buy from canad and pay around 20$

    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/radiopop-usb-2-0-all-in-one-internet-tv-radio-dongle-with-pre-loaded-pvr-for-pc-28786

    this one is just for 3.70 with free shipping

  92. Jai says:

    Cut the Rogers Cable and Internet at the end of December. We got internet only via cable with distributel We hardly miss Cable TV. We watch a lot more TV on internet including foreign serials now. NO REGRETS.

  93. mary says:

    have cable & internet from same company, one day i tried unhooking the cable line from tv and putting a splitter on the internet line, voila!! internet works & cable works, needless to say i cancelled cable

  94. Down says:

    HuffPo is nothing, but leftist liberal hippy cr@p. They are contributing to what’s wrong with the way our society is behaving: weak, abusive, and childish

  95. Laura says:

    We live in an area where Bell is the only supplier of phone, tv and internet (lucky us! humph!!!) It was at a point where our bill was over 200 bucks a month….what??!! So we cut. Unfortunately, the tv (satellite) has just the basics where it seems all the shows are the same boring crap. I guess I am thankful that my little one likes Treehouse tv. yah! lol
    And the internet is measured by gb..we have 3 gb per month…kinda hard to stay within the limit with 2 teenage sons in the house. We’ll see what happens in the future!

  96. Funkymunky says:

    I purchased an HD antenna and now I catch 8 channels over the air, all in HD for free 🙂

  97. sarah says:

    I have the HD antenna in the west end and managed to get 10 channels HD including cbc,ctv, omni, global, tvo

  98. walk says:

    Got a notice the other day that my Rogers bill is going up AGAIN $5/month. Exact same thing happened last year. Rent is going up soon another $40/month AGAIN and seriously want to get rid of Rogers. It’s going to be $100/month soon just for TV. Only reason I have it is because my significant other really enjoys TLC/HGTV and a couple other channels. 🙁

  99. Colin says:

    I cut the cable officially on January 15 of this month; no more Bell! I switched to voip.ms for phone and now use a combination of Antenna, pulling in about 5 channels (CBC, CTV, Global, CityTV, TVO).

    I use MythTV as a PVR to record shows on the antenna and using XBMC and a computer underneath my TV along with a normal remote control to easily watch free online streaming TV. Here are some of the sites streaming for free in Canada:
    (All of the shows aired on-demand usually appear 12-24 hours after their initial broadcast)

    Food Network Canada
    HGTV
    Discovery Channel Canada
    CBC
    CTV (HD)
    TVO Kids
    CTV News Network
    Global TV (HD)
    Much Music
    CMT Canada
    History Channel Canada
    TSN

    (There are a number of others, but I can’t think of them all right now.)

    For those of you not close to the US border where PBS airs and you like PBS; you can get PBS HD and History Channel HD over Free to Air (FTA) Satellite legally. Just look up FTA Satellite shops in your area.

    And to those of you that cannot live without TV; take the 1 month challenge. Disconnect your TV for 1 month, read books, play games, whatever… then turn it back on. You’ll realize just how much of a waste of money TV really is.

  100. learn violin says:

    Hey, you used to write excellent, but the last several posts have been kinda boring� I miss your great writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!

  101. frank says:

    We cut the cord recently and watch locals via antenna in true HD ,much better picture than cable. We also have Netflix ,Nhl Centre Ice and use an apple tv ,which is awesome i might add. For our phone we use Majic Jack Plus which allows us to run our phone right off our router. I guess Rogers lost about 110.00 per month . Better in our pockets than theirs. Anyone paying for cable the way it is now is throwing money out the window!!!!

  102. The Satellite Doctor says:

    You forgot to list free legal satellite TV as an option. With a 36 inch dish and an HD FTA satellite receiver, you can receive about 85 English channels with over 10 of those in HD on Ku Band FTA satellite. If you have room for a bigger dish to receive C band FTA satellite, you can get even more with over 200 additional English channels and over 50 of them in HD. All currently available FTA satellite channels are listed at http://fta.channels.drsat.ca.

    In addition to these full time channels, you may also receive temporary “wild feed” channels which don’t appear on the above list but carry many sporting & special events along with breaking news coverage. You may find these channels yourself by rescanning certain satellites on your receiver or by following a few feed hunting groups such as the Dr. Sat SatHunters Club at http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=170234.

    These channels are unencrypted so they are legally available for free with no monthly subscription and complement nicely the channels you may already receive using an OTA antenna. However unlike OTA, FTA satellite offers near-nationwide coverage which is great for people who have a limited amount of OTA channels available in their area.

  103. Right away I am going away to do my breakfast, after having my breakfast coming yet
    again to read other news.


















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