Cutting the "cord"

Have been reading some articles lately about a growing trend of people moving off the traditional "TV grid" (cable or satellite) to a combination of over-the-air broadcast TV and all the "free" TV available on the internet. I have some friends who have recently done this with pretty good success.

Yesterday I got my DirecTV bill and it was just over $100 after the last increase (3 receivers, the highest non-premium package, HD and DVR access). Somehow seeing the 3-digit bill was enough to make me really start thinking about doing this. Short of giving up TV completely (another idea that might have some merit), to make this feasibly work you would need:

- an antenna (something I don't have yet, but initial research shows good ones can be purchased for $50 or so)
- a broadband internet connection (which I already have and need for other reasons and is probably the future of everything anyway and worth investing in
- a "connected" house (wireless or wired - I have cat5e wiring to every room and gigabit switches)
- PCs or media-capable devices for each TV (two TVs have their own PC, one has a PS3 which is an amazing media capable device)
- a server/servers with UPnP capability (not all that necessary if you are using PCs, but useful if you're using something like a PS3, or a DLNA-capable TV)
- a computer with an ATSC tuner to function as a DVR (e.g. MythTV, Windows Media Center) - not required but nice to have if you want DVR functionality

Basically I already have everything except the antenna, and anything with an ATSC tuner, so this wouldn't be a great cost to me to get going. I did decide I'd probably pay some more money for a faster internet connection, since the connection will get more heavily used, and since everything internet-capable gets benefited from this.

Up sides:

- $100/month savings
- "investing" in what will probably be the future of TV/media with the internet

Down sides and considerations:

- Not every network/channel posts their shows online
- ESPN and sports channels not as available (ESPN3 does broadcast live streaming of many events)
- Will probably have to watch more commercials (for sure on live TV, most streamed media have at least some small amount of ads)
- May want to make more use of PPV options like Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, etc. to "fill in the gaps"

At least on paper, it seems like for $100/month savings, you could upgrade your internet connection, buy more movies, get more PPVs, etc. and still come out ahead.

The plan is to write down everything we watch for 2 months and see how much we actually use DirecTV (and note which things we can watch online). I also have to decide what I'm going to do if they try to offer me deals to keep me as a customer if I quit :)

I should note that I'm not unhappy with DirecTV - in fact I like DirecTV a lot. They have provided a valuable service to people out of range of cable, and have been the only force that stands in front of cable having an insane monopoly. I think it's unfortunate that they're tied to a model (as is cable) where they have to pay for each channel they broadcast, per number of users that subscribe, which is a dumb model because in reality, most people probably watch just a handful of the 200+ channels they receive. I also believe that cable and satellite, while good technologies, are inflexible when looking to the future of media. A good example of this was the switch to HD programming - it was a gargantuan effort, which required new receivers and dishes for everyone, the launch of 3 or 4 new satellites to accommodate the bandwidth, and several years to complete. The internet as a medium of transport, by comparison, is very "neutral" - everything is just transmission of data, the software on each end is infinitely flexible and upgradable.