As the year ends, some thoughts go to finances and budgeting for the new year. Certainly, the entertainment budget has been forced to grow, what with rising cable prices, movie tickets, online and more. And being home for the week, it is easy to pay closer attention to how we watch TV. And I must say, it is hard to justify the high cost of cable. As we scroll through the list of on demand movies, some free, some transactional, and some included with our premium subscription, I wonder if it makes sense to continue to buy my premium subscriptions. It seems that most choice exists through Netflix and I could not only drop my premium services and buy a Netflix subscription AND save money at the same time. Perhaps the biggest reason to make the switch is the streaming that Netflix offers. It is just as convenient as on demand. Instant access of movies and TV shows at a lower cost.
Will I go all the way and drop cable completely? Probably not, but it sure looks like a slippery slope. Certainly, it has been the original series on premium that keeps us buying, but if you can wait a year, they will end up on DVD and on Netflix. I haven't made the move yet, but I sure feel the pull.
Been a month since we cut the cord.
ReplyDeleteUnless Netflix beefs up its on demand content offering, you can basically run through all the "good stuff" in a few months and all you're left with is an easy source of Spongebob videos.
Hulu Plus is *underwhelming*. It regularly has streaming issues and its content selection... read things CAREFULLY. A lot of the network content I thought it would have is still PC-only and won't stream to your TV.
At least 3-4 shows I thought I wouldn't be giving up, I am. If I had a TV with an HDMI input, maybe I could hook up a PC directly and play some videos, but a lot of my shows from NBC owned properties (Burn Notice, Top Chef, Chuck) are stuck on a tiny screen, or I pay $2 an episode to watch it in standard def ($3 for high-def) on Amazon on Demand.
The whole "get 90% on Hulu Plus, pay $1 an episode for the rest" really hasn't panned out.
Hulu Plus did not pay for itself in December because of a lack of new episodes of our favorite shows.
Upside, massive savings, content *slowly* migrating to online availability (Phineas & Ferb coming to Netflix), and we're mostly enjoying it so far.