Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Poll: How many watch NO TV at all?

Wondering if it's just me, or if it's some sort of trend... I stopped watching TV a few years ago and now I only see it if it's on at somebody else's house. No particular reason, either. I just find it dull.

Those that gave it up... when did you do it, and why?

Those that still watch... what are your favorite shows?

How much TV in a typical week? single choice
	Usually, none at all.
	I like a show or two.
	I'll kill a few hours with it, now and again.
	I watch it all the time.
Votes accepted starting: 02/16/2011 6:57 PM
View Results

I got rid of cable TV in 2009 when I was furloughed for 4 weeks, not sure if I'd have a job to go back to. Never got cable TV back but I kept cable internet all this time.

I watch a few shows via a combination of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and ::cough::bittorrent::cough::... For the first two, which can be delayed up to a year between broadcast and DVD release, I just try and avoid spoilers. Had to stop following Dexter on Facebook because of spoilers and the delay.

When home I almost always have it on even if not really watching it.

I don't watch it as much as I used to but do enjoy it sometimes. The trouble with TV is it cuts in on my BA.com time.

TELL me about it...

I am a potatoe, but then again I also do AV for a living. I used to run a corporate TV station and had to create broadcasts so it is in my blood.

Most of what I watch is sports. Not much else.

I have cable. TV, internet, phone. I will watch something once in a great while. I just have a hard time sitting still long enough to get into it.
I catch that cafe racer show when I can, and occasionally a game or a fight, but that's it so I said "usually none".

Oh yeah, and the morning news for the traffic and weather.

My wife has several shows that she likes, so she watches and I surf around the net. Much more entertaining.

I don't have TV... don't even own a set!

I wasn't watching much back home, and now that I live in Taiwan, you just watch a show or two here and you find out that any stupid trick makes for a good show! Let's just say we don't have the same ideas about entertainment between the Americas and Asia.

Used to get cable TV here, but was only watching HBO, got really fed up with the constant reruns of the same movie everyday of the week.

Threw my TV set away and replaced it with a projector and a surround sound system, best investment ever! I get to watch movies (without all the cell phone callers in the theater) and the occasional TV show on DVDs.

And for the news, the internet is hard to beat!

No TV for me. It friggin' rots yer brain!! Not kidding here... It really does!!

There are maybe half dozen shows that I will watch along with an occasional look at the morning news misinformation. Oh yeah, once in a while I watch a black/white movie on the classic channels.

Cable does not run out my road, so I have not had cable TV since I bought this house in 1998, and rarely miss it. I could have gotten the dish, but never saw it as nescessary. We get a very decent array of channels over the air. My kids on the other hand, feel horribly deprived, but they have adjusted and stream if there is something they really want. I do have wireless broadband, so anything we really want to see is out there on the net somewhere. SOA, Walking Dead, etc can be seen the next day. I plug the laptop into the tv and its allmost as good as cable. (Just takes longer to change the channel). The only show I want to see, that I have a hard time getting is Futurama.

We have it, kids use it. wife likes it on weekends that she is able to actually sit for an hour or more w/out being interrupted (by me or the kids), Me,, I hardly watch actual tv. I like some stuff but second shift kills it, and no im not paying for tevo. I find that You Tube and DVDs keep me happy. Now its getting warmer and I can play in the garage! Bike needs some TLC and that is where the beer fridge is!

Interesting little survey you have going here, Mike. I am however, curious as to how you set this little program up. I woulda thought such ways and means lie only in the hands of System Administrator, or some other such 'lofty' position.

Wait a minute... I think I just answered my own question.

It ain't rocket surgery, bubba.

Babba... such an endearing term.

I only have the "free" channels, but to get them you've got to have a license.

If I got rid of the TV and stopped paying for a license I would get so much hassle from the license people that it wouldn't be worth it

Hmmmm..."a license to watch broadcast TV over there", huh Bryn?!

Well then...GOD BLESS AMERICA...where, it appears, the term 'FREEdom' now has a whole new meaning for me!!!

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I have that all-in-one cable setup: TV/computer line/landline phone.

The TV is often on. Favorite programs:

"Two and a Half Men"...c'mon now, admit it...that lowlife Charlie Sheen was MADE to play that role!...and John Cryer does the best Don Knotts impression since..well..Don Knotts!!!

"The Big Bang Theory"...super nerds, super funny!

I like to turn the T.V. on (muted), and then crank up some Primus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb4Kc5JPxHE

I like to turn the sound down and mess with the colours and get a comet effect happening off the ball ... Wa la ... instant Space Footy to rock'n roll from the stereo.
Other than that I watch very little , too much death and angry people and most plots you can see em coming a mile away

Still some good stuff out there on the tube if you make the time hunt it down. "The Wire" was exceptional. I just finished seasons one & two of "Dexter" on Netflix. Another excellent show. "True Blood" from genius Alan Ball.
I wanna do real bad things to - you-oo-hoo.

And now some sad tales of how Comcast git's her done:

This be a long & boring tale, so set your surfing sails now while you still have a chance.

Friday last the cable went out. Saturday I call Comcast and a tech is able to come out same day, on a Saturday no less. OK - let's give them an A+ on that score.

The cable runs from the street to the house 300' underground in a PVC conduit, as pulled by Comcast in the year 2000. The tech finds Saturday that the core wire has pulled itself back inside the cable at the house end. He puts a new end on, and still no signal. "Should we check the pole end? I can dig it out of the snow," says I. The tech replies "It wouldn't do any good, I'll have to turn it over to the line & construction crew." Okey dokey then. It's beyond my Radio Shack sh*tty crimpin pliers ways & means then.

A week goes by, and we're getting along well with streaming Netflix and my mother in law's DVD collection. Friday comes along again, so I figure I'll call Comcast and get a status report. The script reader tells me the original Saturday service never happened, and was canceled at the door. (First - huh?) I explain what happened, and the script reader tells me such a repair cannot even be sent out for scheduling in under 7 business days, (#2 - huh?) and that once they finally do get here, they may not be able to do a repair if there is frost in the ground. (Another - huh?) In other words, there's no telling if it will be another week or month or two before I get cable restored. Thankfully she at least had the sense not to try and upsell a non-working account.

This means I have two choices if I want to watch real time TV - satellite, or satellite. Friday morning I order one or the other of the two satellite provider's packages, (Dish I think?) and the install happens Monday tomorrow. Seems like a decent deal and package for the money, and HD is not held hostage like Comcast does. We have 4 TVs, but the three TV mark holds the price back, and so the 4th TV we'll do without. It's in my workshop anyway, and I have internet radio & PC CDs & MP3s there with some vintage AR 3 perfect condition suspensions are still good paid $2 for em at a tag sale speakers. Sound is far better than my upstairs speakers, but so it goes.

Friday afternoon my wife calls me at work. The Comcast tech decides to stop without an appointment and give it another shot. (Third - huh?) He discovers the connection at the pole IS damaged, apparently during our 4 plus feet of accumulated snow removal. (Didn't we go out to the pole a few paragraphs ago? Maybe not. I'm getting old and my memory...)
Anyway, The Comcast tech fixes the cable service, and urges me to cancel satellite service. Um, yeah. Let me sleep on that. Um, nope. I'm locked down for two years with satellite, and don't feel like playing telephone mind f' with a media provider to cancel and then get a cancellation charge anyway.

We had a Comcast cable box for HBO. Way back when the Comcast installer set our TV to channel three only, and ran all the channels through the Comcast box. Never thought twice about this setup. Turns out our TV, which can get the 3.21 style in between dot channels could have been giving us some buried HD channels all the time. Shame on me for not figuring that out, and shame on Comcast for taking the TV there to begin with. No HD channels come through a Comcast box for free. Now HD in the US is still not quite ready for prime time (IMO) but when it does work right, like for big time sports, it is stellar and well worth it.

I'm slowly getting adjusted to the TV in the USA.

The main gripe is the amount of advertisments, it seems to take an age to watch a film or a programme without someone trying to sell pile cream or motor insurance.

Not to worry, I made sure I took loads of tv programmes from the UK on dvd.

I haven't had tv in years. I cancelled cable after my divorce and i've never bothered to get one of those antennas for the digital crap. I only watch dvds now, usually just to make the house feel less lonely.

man, it was just a year or so ago that everyone was calling me crazy for having no cable to hook to my 52" LCD.

TV is really a dying breed anymore. I really cant see needing anything more than Netflix now. Unless you watch sports.

I wonder how long it'll take for netflix to totally kill the dvd/home video market, and take over the world.

Why does it always have to be ONE company to rule the world at something?...Theres no competition anymore. Just 3 or 4 huge companies to sell you everything you'll ever need.

April 2009 folies

once there is no more competition things will not be so cheap anymore.

I haven't had TV of any kind in my house since 2002, books and the internet for me.

Don't kid yourself.just check comparatively the nezt time you go to walmart. not everyhing yet. but needed items are already at or above, k-mart and meijers pricces. but this is the way things work get them to nibble at the bait [lowerprices]. Then... BAM.... hitem between the eyes with higher prices.Watching tv.only adds fire to the flame.......15 count them sometime, commercials per insert. They are wearin out my tv faster than me watching it .but i am amomg the multitude who watch lots of TV.Guess i need another bike project aaaayyyy?? JMO sorry if i got off subject abit.JMO


ps and those who say they are not watching much should take another look ....close. unless you don't have a tv to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY7jSesdxl0
long story short