Ok, now I'm beginning to notice the writers' strike. Talk about lousy tv. I find myself, in the evening either watching more cable news, or my old standby, reruns of al of the Law & Order shows.

I hope when this strike is finally over that they give some of the new shows a chance. In particular, I started watching Moonlight after Ghost Whisperer on Fridays, and I was really getting into it. Watch it not come back.

Anyway, the least they could do is put on a good movie.

TIS

I've felt tv has been on the downward spiral for some time. I just finished watching Frosty the snowman. Now that's a classic.

I just turned the tv off because I'm not interested in anything that's on. I think netflix should be making a killing these days.

Speaking of tv, and off topic somewhat, although I don't understand the guidelines of cable, but out here they are questioning and/or talking about having cable customers be able to choose what stations they want. They were questioning the fairness or legality of these companies selling only "packages".

Legalities aside, cable is a rip-off. Out by me if I didn't have cable tv I wouldn't get tv at all (the mountains make reception impossible). I am glad I have it, and there is a variety, but it is a ripoff. If I could choose the stations I wanted, I would shit-can (toss out) at least 80 percent of the garbage stations. ( i.e. for me (I know not for others), I have no use for sports but have tons of sports channels.) I'd keep the movie stations and a few others.

Not only that, cable can keep increasing their price and we can't do anything about it. It's the only cable service in our area.

TIS

I only have one cable company in my area too. I remember in cable's infancy I think basic cable was advertised starting at $18.99, before franchinse fees, the remote control, tv guide and taxes. I only have basic and before I got my internet included it was about $65.00. I probably wouldn't pay for any extra channels because they show the same movie over and over. I'll just buy the tape if it's any good. Even though I only have basic the majority of what I watch is on cable. Be it the news channels, or AMC, TCM, USA or ESPN.

Not having a TV all these days, I was just beginning to think of buying a tv. Expensive cable and bad programs. That's all I wanted now

Svsg,

Ha ha!! Glad to have helped you make your decision. I can't see having no tv at all. I do have my favorite shows.

When I finally got HBO, I swore as soon as the Sopranos ended I'm getting rid of it. A couple years after having it, Adelphia switched to Time Warner and I "had" to get a package and I could no longer choose only HBO. So, obviously got the cheapest package that had HBO. I agree with Beth, that even the movie channel (like HBO) show the same movies over and over and most of them are old.

TIS

All I want is 2 news channels, discovery, history, National Geographic and 5 movie channels. This is what I used to watch when I had TV a few years back.

They have some awesome programming! I'm watching "The Dog Whisperer" now. He's on Friday nights and this guy is absolutely AMAZING in how he handles/trains "problem" dogs.

DISH NETWORK SATELLITE TV . What I have with them would cost me about $60 more per month with Cable TV!!!!

I love Dish Network!

You should look into it TIS!

I watch all the cable news shows. I rarely watch broadcast TV. I have enough channels. My wife won't let me get satellite, but I don't know if I would really want it

I'm curious about that statement. What package do you have with them?

Dish Network rocks and doesn't cost that much. Love the DVR.

Oh yeah, if you tell em DC referred you, you get $50 off and DC gets $50 off. Or me

US TV sounds very complicated....

SC, I have the EVERYTHING package which is over 250 channels, 5 boxes with 2 of them being DVRs.

I went to my local cable tv store one afternoon and out of curiosity I asked them to quote me a price for exactly what I have. It was almost $60 more a month! I'm not kidding.

What do you pay for that package and all those "extras"??

About $110 per month.

With TW, it was something like $85.00 with only 4 premium channels HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and TMC, Starz was something like another $10.00 additional which brought it to around $95.00 and then something like $8.00 per box which brought it to around $135.00, + I believe something like an additonal $13.00 if I wanted 2 of the 5 boxes to be DVR boxes which brought it to $148.00 because DVR service is an incremental charge. Then if I wanted the sports package it was another $5.00 per month which made it $153 + taxes. and I think it totalled to around $165.00 after the taxes.

So $55 more per month.

EDIT : Oh, and I think that the remotes were extra too if I'm not mistaken.

Yes, I should look into it DC. Of course, if I did change I'd also have to change my ISP since it's all together.

TIS

I pay about $50 a month for 120 channels to 2 tvs with dvr

As soon as you spend a week without TV you won't ever go back.

If you do... well, you should probably put a bullet in your head.

Sports. Biography Channels, National Geographic channels. Classic Movie channels.

I'd miss it.

I have my favorite shows. On an average I probably watch about 3/4 hours in the evening. As of late, I watch a lot of cable news and maybe one or two dramas I like. I always feel that I've earned a couple hours of relaxing entertainment of my choice in the evening. Then again, some people wouldn't miss it at all. I would though.

TIS

Btw, I'm beginning to feel the writer's strike in one of my favorites: Desperate Housewives is not on today and I have a feeling it's repeat city for all shows very soon. If not repeats, and to make it really tempting to give up tv, I read that they are going to have reality shows up the wazoo during the strike. How boring. Maybe I could give up tv.

I have DirecTv and we just ordered HBO in the fall. My lone reason was to watch the new season of "Curb Your Enthusiam." I was able to DVR the last ten "Sopranos" of the final season, but other than those two shows, I saw no value in keeping HBO. We cancelled it the day after "Curb" was finished. They will show some new movies, but they were still showing stuff made 20 years ago like "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," "Breakfast Club," etc. The only two HBO movies I have on DVR that were good were "The Departed" and "United 93."

The strike itself does not bother me because I do not watch too many regular shows except "The Office." To this day, I have never watched any of the so-called reality shows. I mainly watch sports when watchign tv, and that's only when I'm not being wrestled to the ground by my kids.

You are so right Goombah. It pisses me off when I see a movie like Pee Wee's Big Adventure playing on the main HBO channel. I wouldn't mind if they played an old movie like that on one of their other channels like HBO SIG or something like that, but to play a movie like that on their main channel is ridiculous.

DC, it's all about market research. I'm sure HBO and the local cable company have a huge spreadsheet that quantifies every single solitary viewing variable out there and that dictates what gets shown.

You may be correct olivant. However that means absolutely nothing to me. If people are paying for a premium serice that broadcasts 7 different channels ( HBO, HBO2, HBO SIG, HBO Comedy, HBO FAM, HBO West and HBO2 WEST), there is absolutey no reason that they should play a 30 year old movie on their main HBO channel. Years ago the MAIN channel was used for premiere and first run up to date movies. Their spreadsheets suck because ever since the Sopranos ended, what they now show sucks and many people that I know have attempted to or have actually cancelled HBO.

I have all those multiple HBO and Showtime and Encore channels, and while I may flip thru them from time to time, I NEVER make it a point to see what's on and tune in at a particular time to watch something anymore -- I always go straight to the On-Demand channels or DVR. In fact, I DVR everything I want to watch so never have to be on time for any show I watch. Gotta love it.

And FWIW, my Comcast cable bill is $160/month before taxes:

$46 for Internet ($43 + $3 for modem rental) plus
$115 for Television ("Digital Gold Preferred*" package with HBO & Showtime on 2 TVs; $12 for 1 DVR)
*253 channels including all premium/sports/music/On-Demand/PPV channels, many of which I don't subscribe to

I couldn't tell you what package we have with Comcast, but we get more channels than I'm interested in. We used to get HBO and Cinemax and their affiliated channels, but had that discontinued because we didn't watch it much.

I mostly watch sports on tv and once in a while watch a movie on one of the movie channels. I can't think of a present network show that I watch regularly.

My daughter likes Hannah Montana, which is on about 14 times per day. I sit through that sometimes with her. It's a little better than Drake and Josh.

TV arrived today 32" samsung hdtv. No cable yet. Have to do some research on cable packages...

The Office is the only show I've been missing.