I have mentioned on a few previous posts that I was switching to the internet for my TV. Just thought I would update on details in case anyone else wanted to go that route. Based on being in Canada.
I was paying local cable company $75/month for cable TV and another $5-10 for rental of their equipment. I was also paying about $45 for internet from same provider.
I cancelled my cable TV and switched my internet provider from local cable to 'teksavvy' and went from 80 Gb limit to 300Gb limit for $40/month.
I had to purchase my modem and router (about $250).
I also purchased a Mac Mini ($600) although there are cheaper alternatives available.
I also purchased Netflix for $8/month and unblock-us for $5/month (unblock-us uses DNS to spoof location for netflix, hulu, BBC and other sites that insist you access from that country)
Overall savings is about $65/month (will take just over a year recoup initial outlay)
As for availability of programming.
1. News is freely available on multiple web sites
2. Movies: Netflix is better than tv movies however not the newest movies
3. Sports: I'm not a big sports fan but CBC.ca streams hockey and I have heard from friends that there are subscriptions sites where I can get a years sports for under $100. Additionally, I can still get local broadcasts with an antenna.
4. TV programing: Pretty much all TV programming is available on station web pages the day after it is broadcast on air. As a bonus if you use firefox with ad-blocker you can watch most programming commercial free. Some sites will not play with ad-blockers however on-line ads seem to only come in ones and twos rather than the 6 at a time that are put into TV broadcasts.
If anyone has any questions about the process or has come across any interesting web sites with either content or services that make obtaining content easier please post.
