Back in January, we canceled our cable service.  It’s a little experiment that Jes has wanted to try for quite some time and so far it hasn’t been that bad.  I’ve always been the type of person who liked to turn the TV on for background noise so that was probably the only thing I had to get used to.  The silence in the house is really weird.  Not only do we have the TV off most of the day but the constant hum of the cable box is also missing.  Now I can hear everything that that goes on in the house and outside.  The neighbors upstairs walking in their shoes, the shower running in the next unit, and the occasional dump of ice in our freezer are new sounds that I didn’t know existed before.

So, how have I been keeping up with my favorite TV shows?  Well, first of all, we have AppleTV.  I buy all the episodes I want to watch at about $2.99 per episode.  If I want an entire season, it ranges between $30-60 depending on its popularity and demand.  Since we started this mid-season, the only full seasons that I’ve purchased are those that started after January: “Top Chef” and “MadMen”.  All others I’ve been just downloading individually.  It seems like a lot of money initially but our cable bill was almost $90/month.  We also have Netflix Streaming (under $10/month) and it plays on our TV as well.  We play both movies and old seasons of “How I Met Your Mother”, “Futurama”, “MadMen”, and “Arrested Development”.

I also use the free account on Hulu.  It’s useful for watching current network TV shows but you have to watch on your computer.  It’s the paid account, Hulu+, that allows you to stream to your TV but we have enough computers in the house that one can be used for watching shows while another is used for surfing at the same time.  Each show is on for about 8 days after the initial showing so if you have been keeping up, it’s actually a really inexpensive way to watch some of your favorites. I started watching the new season of “Dancing with the Stars” and some Food Network shows like “Giada at Home” and “Good Eats”.  Just yesterday, I got back into watching an old favorite of mine: “Days of Our Lives”.  Heh heh.  The farthest back episode aired on March 12th so I’ve got about 2 weeks of catching up to do, which is easy when you have an afternoon of nothing to do.  Yesterday, I watched 3 in a row while I tidied up the house.  What fun! I like this option for watching shows that aren’t really worth $2.99.

Now, the only bummer is that I haven’t been able to watch any sports or specials like the Academy Awards at home.  So, I’ve had to rely on my friend the Internet for tracking March Madness and how the Lakers are doing.  You can, however, buy a season pass for all the major sports teams.  I can’t remember how much a season costs but I know it’s an option.  I may also need to figure out how I’m going to watch the Summer Olympics.  I’m a sucker for the Olympics.

And what about the local news?  Well, I wasn’t much of a news watcher in the first place but the other day I discovered that there’s a live feed of the morning news on KTVU.com.  It’s just like watching the TV only it’s on your computer with the up-to-the-minute weather and traffic report.  Nice!

So there you have it.  I haven’t actually done the math to see if we’re spending more or less on television but it’s definitely given me a new perspective on my TV-watching habits.  Let’s just see what happens when my mom stays here with us for a month.  This roundabout way of watching TV might drive her nuts.