PROS: Save about $50 a month. Emeril the famous chef will just have to make bologna sandwiches flambé without me. No more worrying where Chapelle is. No more Sci-Fi Channel with their dreadfully formulaic alien-vs-human dramas. No more Rugrats.
CONS: No more home and garden shows! This hurts. Not that I ever used their decorating tips, ever, but it's the principle of the thing.
MIDDLE GROUND: It seems we'll still have network TV, which I never watch but other people seem to think is better than being cut off completely. So there'll still be a voice in my house constantly assuring me that fifteen minutes could save me fifteen percent or more on car insurance, and that Oil of Olay is the perfect way to more beautiful skin.
Comcast cable, spawn of Satan (but what you gonna do?)will let me keep the cbale modem but if we try to ditch the tv portion of the bill we pay a $200 surcharge. The idea is to keep you from going over to satellite.
Posted by: pops | June 27, 2005 at 08:50 AM
Wow, really? We have Comcast.
Posted by: pam | June 27, 2005 at 09:02 AM
Seems to me that's anti-competitive behavior? And coercive too!
Posted by: maya | June 27, 2005 at 09:22 AM
Goin' off the grid! Pretty soon you'll be able to read the billboards for Real.
Posted by: Jo | June 27, 2005 at 09:25 AM
POPS;
There is a time limit on the $200 Comcast surcharge penalty- usually one year from the contract begin time for "free" installation, or 3 months of a cheaper rate, or a "free" broadband cable modem. These companies should not be able to call this free at all. I signed a one year like this for a modem, but it ends in July. Check that contract. I have never seen an opened ended penalty claus.
Posted by: BB | June 27, 2005 at 04:10 PM
Every summer we turn off the cable (including network, everything) to force the kids outside. I think I miss it more than they do. CNN, Court TV, Food TV... those are the only grown up voices I hear during the day.
Wah.
Posted by: kristal | June 27, 2005 at 08:30 PM
AAAHHHHHHHH!!! THE HORROR!!!
Posted by: Kimberly | June 28, 2005 at 09:47 AM
Really, Kristal has a point. I am newly addicted to the Food Network. And I have a long-standing love affair with TLC and HBO. I too may ditch the cable soon--I am about to be broke.
Posted by: maya | June 28, 2005 at 09:55 AM
I think you'll be glad you did it. It's a big time-sucker, and we already have the computer to fill that role. When we move, I'm personally not getting the darn thing until my ears bleed from the family begging me.
Posted by: Sheryl | June 28, 2005 at 11:19 AM