Good Value Television
Some readers of this article will remember the time when television was free. All you had to do was to buy a set, attach an antenna, either indoor or outdoor, plug it in and turn on the set. There was no cable or satellite dish. The antenna brought the magic of television to your home. In only a few short years, cable television became popular. Today subscribers can pay from 30 to 100 dollars monthly for cable. That transcribes to 360 to 1200 dollars annually for this service. Here is some great news. For the absolute cheapest TV reception, cut out the cable company.
When all televisions were analog sets, cable grew in popularity because reception was often bad. Pictures often had shadows or snow and in some cases were not viewable. Recently all television was changed to digital broadcasting. Television stations still send out their feed through the airwaves, they are at different frequencies than before. The good news about digital television is that pictures are always clear if there is any reception at all.
Free, local television broadcasts will allow you to see many of your favorite daytime or nighttime shows at no cost. Most local stations also offer local as well as national news.
If you fear losing your favorite movie channels, remember that for the 100 dollars you have spent per month on cable, you can buy five movies on DVD. For as little as 5 dollars monthly, you can join online movie rental sites that will send you DVDs of your favorite and new release movies. An advantage of these rental sites is that you can watch movies on your time schedule, and not according to the movie channel’s schedule.
If you have missed some of your favorite television shows, these too can be downloaded to your computer for immediate viewing. The cost, once again is free. Just visit the websites of the major networks, and start downloading.
Many families find that they are watching less television than ever. If you are among the many families that watch two to four hours of television per month, then why spend even thirty dollars per month on television cable. That works out to 7. 50 dollars per hour. The price seems very expensive for something that you may not use that often.
Once you begin using free local television, the cheapest TV of all, think of what you can do with all the money you save. If you are a real television fan, you may save enough money to buy the big screen television that you have always wanted. Many of the new flat screen televisions can be wall mounted and take up very little space.
What happens if there is one evening when nothing is on the local channels and you just sent the last DVD back to the rental site? You get the privilege of turning off the set and getting to know your family once again. Play a game, got to the park or simply sit and talk. Your children will love hearing stories of when you grew up.