When I left for college, every dorm room or apartment I lived in came with free cable, and it was great. I got to catch up on all those shows that I had missed, and started a lot of new shows, but again, the problem came with timing. If you wanted to watch a new show, you would have to be ready at the exact time the show is on. I like to watch things when I'm trying to avoid being productive, or when I'm going to bed, and that doesn't always coincide with the timing of the tv programs that I liked to watch.
Then came along Netflix. I can pick what to watch, when I want to watch it. People say, "but Netflix doesn't have everything I want to watch"...neither does cable. When was the last time you found an adult cartoon on at 9 am on tv...exactly. If there is something I feel like watching, I see if Netflix has it.... and if it doesn't, I pick something like it.
There is a minor problem with only having Netflix - there are a number of shows I would love to watch now that Netflix doesn't have. These shows have new seasons coming out soon and I want to keep up. I've heard Hulu might be something to try, but I didn't want to spend more money on another streaming service at this time, and they don't have everything I want to watch (Game of Thrones, being the big one).
I first saw a free episode of Vikings on my Xbox. I really liked it...but again, no cable and I didn't want to pay $20+ to watch the episodes on my Xbox, so I just waited until it came out on dvd and bought it. But now that the 2nd season is coming out, I really want to watch it now. I am in that Vikings mood.
(I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last)
So my proposal is an "a la carte" system of cable channels. Why get 200 channels when you know you will watch maybe 5-10 of them regularly.
When I had cable I watched:
Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
Sci-fi (SyFy now)
FX (for Archer only)
Discovery
History
USA and TNT (pretty much the same channel in my opinion)
I never had HBO, but I would love to grab that on "a la carte". Perhaps even Showtime as well.
But out of 60+ channels that's all I watched.
Anyway, get on that cable channel providers. I can't guarantee I would pay what I can only imagine would be outrageous prices per channel, but just having the option would make me contemplate getting a channel or 10...
- Zach
