Dropping the Dish

I'm seriously thinking about stopping my satellite service. I've been a fan of Dish Network since digital satellite television supplied through the 18" dish antenna first became available (wow I'm old).

Uncommon son #1 recently moved into his own rent house and I helped him connect a television antenna. He didn't want to spend money on satellite or cable television that he would rarely be home to watch. He is a school teacher and a coach. I was amazed by the number of channels available for free. Somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty.

With two uncommon sons still at home, and one starting college, the chances of my sitting around watching the tube (wow I'm old again) for hours in the evening or on the weekend are pretty small. Truthfully, paying nearly $100 for television service for the last three to four years has been a bit of a waste. We dropped our subscription by one level about a year ago and I haven't even missed the channels we dropped. I noticed for about the first two months that some of my 'regular' shows were missing, but quickly adjusted.

I like to watch the news. I don't care much for sports except for playoffs, which are almost always on the free network channels. And more shows are available on Netflix or similar Internet subscription services every month. I think I would rather have $100 in my piggy bank each month than keep paying for 100 channels I don't watch.