Showing posts with label Cutting The Cord. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cutting The Cord. Show all posts

Saturday, November 18, 2023

A Few Weeks Without Cable Sports...How It's Going

Back in the day, when we couldn't afford cable, I regularly missed many things, movies, TV shows, and especially sporting events. Life went on, of course. I'd read about it the next day in the newspapers (we could afford those...), and my friends and I would talk about the games at school/work.

Then, I got a job with the cable company. I worked there for two years.

And we got hooked.

There were times in the past thirty years when we didn't have cable, but we'd find a way to hook it back up. Then, when life revolved around the internet to the point where it became as necessary as electricity and water--okay, almost as necessary--we picked up cable with our internet. That's how we've lived for decades. Our kids have not known a time when we didn't have cable.

All that changed last month.

We bit the bullet and cut the cord.

Overall, I'm pleased. We were paying for so much for things we never watched. We spent hundreds, no...thousands of dollars over the years for entertainment we never watched, shows ignored. A few years ago, I drastically reduced my viewing time for sports. I thought this would help in the transition. It has, of course, but what I didn't realize is how I was watching sports.

I hardly watched the games on a TV set. I streamed them on my laptop. It was the perfect situation. I could sit in the main room with my wife and watch movies or TV shows, while the game streamed silent on my computer. If the game got interesting, I'd pay more attention. If not, no big deal. Now, without cable, or a streaming service, you can't watch much at all on a computer.

We have good antenna signal strength so there's games on Saturdays--especially college sports--I could see, but I'd be in another room. Last Saturday, I was in another room semi-watching the games. Didn't like that very much. I need to figure out a way to get the antenna signal to play on the laptop so I can semi-watch what I like. I've read you can do it somehow. Then again, maybe it's best if I just revert back to an earlier time, when cable was for the elites and the rest of us enjoyed a game on those rare occasions, making the experience that better.

No, I didn't watch any of the college football home teams play today...

Probably for the best.

 

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Salt Lake Comic Con '15...Panel #2: Cutting The Cord


The Con happens next week, and for those interested, I'm going through and highlighting about four panels. There's going to be some great panelists on these panels. Oh, and I'm going to be there, too.

This is the second panel with which I am involved. The official title of the panel is:

Cord Cutting: Is It Right For You?

At first I had no idea what "Cord Cutting" meant, so I read the panel description:

With options like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, Sling and Playstation Vue, it's becoming increasingly easy to cancel your cable or satellite, but is cord cutting right for you?

I like it for several reasons. First, it's timely, it's a new panel topic (at least, I haven't heard of this topic being covered before at SLCC...) and it's something in which I have a little experience.

Back in the mid-nineties I worked for the country's largest cable company, TCI Cablevision. Remember them? And I worked in customer service. Doing customer service work is tough to begin with. Throw in helping out frustrated cable subscribers and you have a new kind of torture. Actually, many/most people were very nice, but there were always a few...

I am looking forward to this panel, for the topic and for the amazing panelist, many of whom I've known for years. I don't believe I've met Bill Frost yet. I look forward to getting to know him.

Here's the panel list:

Robert J. Defendi: Moderator
Bill Frost
Daniel Swenson
Dan Willis
James Wymore

If you're at Comic Con on Friday, September 25, 2015, at 3pm, head over to Room 150G. I think this is going to be a good one!