Cutting back on TV

Sons of Anarchy Tuesdays on FX

With Dish Network and FX fighting over pricing, as of today I’ve got one less show on my list of shows to watch. It is possible at the end of the month I may have even fewer shows if Dish and Fox continue this fight. The LA Times story says as of 10/31 Fox may cut the feed for their local networks if they don’t reach an agreement with Dish.

As I read the comments on the various news sites it amuses me how much disinformation there is out there. So many people are blaming Dish for cutting the feed when it’s actually FX that cut the feed to Dish. Dish is trying to protect customers from a rate increase (or possibly protect themselves from paying more to FX for the channels and claiming they are protecting the customers). I like Dish because I get many channels for little money. When Comcast claimed they were “going digital” and I’d have to pay twice as much for the same programming I had. I looked elsewhere. I found that Dish would give me twice as many channels for less than what Comcast asked for. I’m all for paying less and getting more. I’ve seen all the networks fight with the different providers and really, I’m bored with it. Do you really think I’m going to cancel my Dish just because I can’t watch your channel? I like TV, and yeah I’m a bit of an addict, but with ALL the channels I have and all the shows out there, I’m OK with missing this one show, as awesome as it is, that just means that I’ll find it online or go to a friend’s house, maybe get a DVD and I’ll catch up.

No more NatGeo

I could really stand to watch a lot less television. Another channel that’s wrapped up in this nonsense is the National Geographic Channel. When I didn’t have this channel I wished for it. When I got it, I watched a few things, then I stopped. I’m really not broken up by it. I hardly even look at what’s on.  If I could outright cancel my dish without some kind of “you canceled your contract early” punishment I’d do it.  Maybe I should call them and find out my options, stick with only the local network channels. But this will be a good test in cutting back and learning to deal.  I know I’ve got way too many shows sucking up way too much of my time.

I’m not ready to cut it all off, cold turkey. I think that way lies madness. But I am ready to stop watching some shows to test out the no more TV thing. We’ll see how long it lasts…how far I get.