Repairing the Cord

Last year I decided to cut the cord and drop my satellite tv service. I also cut the cable tv service I wasn’t using. Now, after 6 months, I’m going back.

Why you ask? Not because I decided I wanted too. But because of stupid Comcast. We’ve been having internet issues so I called them up. In the process I ended up getting signed up for their “protection plan”, which will charge me $4 a month in exchange for them not charging me $40 when their technician comes out to figure out why out internet keeps dropping out every few days. Kind of a scam there.

While I was on the phone, they offered me a deal on faster internet service, which included basic cable, for about $10 less than I’m paying now.  For 6 months at least. After that, I think it’ll be about $10 more than I’m paying now. Assuming I also don’t decide to get a DVR which will be more. And a DVR is necessary to make watching tv on cable worth it.

Now, having cable again solves a few problems. Watching the Olympics for example. Since that’s NBC’s thing, I don’t think we’ll get to watch using ESPN3 or over the Roku in some other way. Same for college football games that end up being on CBS, Fox or ABC. We were thinking about getting an antennae and buying a dvr. If getting a dvr weren’t even more, paying that extra $10/month in 6months for this new cable plan might be worth that.

We can also gain access to several shows we cut out that just weren’t worth paying for individually. And some shows that we were paying for can be obtained without paying for them. That might be enough to make it financially worth it. Also, the Daily Show on a tv again instead of the computer.

But, but. I really liked not having cable. No commercials to fast forward through. Just buy what we want and have it available to stream. Not stupid extra cable box taking up space. We’re going to have to make a decision of which thing gets one of our tv’s three HDMI ports (DVD, Xbox, Roku, Cable).

Maybe we won’t go full swing and get the DVR. Just take the cheaper plan for 6months with faster internet. Use the cable to watch the Olympics and the few missed Gator games. And keep TV the way we’re watching it now.