So, as you might know from my previous MediaFreak posts, up until recently, I have gone without cable TV and television in general for some time now. I became fed up with Time Warner Cable's less-than-regular, expensive service. After six months of getting no feed for ESPN and having no Time Warner technician able to fix it, I said enough is enough. I watched most of my shows either on Hulu.com (kosher) or Justin.tv (a little less kosher). Recently, a commenter on one of my posts said I should stop complaining and get a pair of rabbit ears to connect to my HD TV. So, I did. I bought them at Best Buy for just about $11, and after hooking them up to my TV, I immediately got 38 channels, some of which were in crystal-clear HD (all the main broadcast nets). Sure, I’m not getting cable channels, but how many of them did I really watch anyway? One? Three? (HBO and Showtime don’t count since they don’t come in the basic cable package.) I found that most of what I watched was, in fact, on the regular broadcast networks. And given that Lost and 24 have come back, I pretty much only need ABC and Fox. And with the Olympics on NBC, I’m good to go, too. OK, you might say, but what about a DVR? When I miss an episode of 24 or Lost, I just watch it on Hulu or ABC.com. Cable? Who needs it.
—Posted by Will Levith
