Time to Pull the Plug on Paid Cable TV?

There’s a lot of grumbling among consumers and media types that cable TV is not only overpriced, but that it should be free—and what with the growing number of free alternatives on the web, it might have no choice but to be free.

Last week, I linked to a Bargaineering post that offered tips for turning off cable without suffering from entertainment withdrawal. Some more examples that make the case for life without cable, or at least life without cable TV you must pay for:

A NY Times writer with a brand-new Blu-ray player describes how he now spends a lot of time watching movies and TV shows via the Internet, and rarely bothers with cable:

The more I play movies and TV shows from the Web, the less I use my cable TV service. I almost never order pay-per-view movies anymore. And I recently canceled my premium Showtime subscription. Most of Showtime’s best programs, including “The Tudors,” “Weeds” and “Dexter,” are available to stream through Netflix, as are a lot of the movies currently playing on the network. Why pay $23 a month when I can get the stuff for almost nothing?

A WSJ columnist comments on the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger:

This would be a merger, after all, of two businesses that seem headed toward some combination of the fates of newspapers, music CDs and the old wireline telephone business. Customers want the product for free. Comcast’s lifeblood, the $100-a-month cable bill and the $50-a-month broadband bill, increasingly look like duplicative expenses. And so on.

A Cheapism post links to a story about Apple TV, which allows you to buy individual TV episodes or entire seasons through iTunes, and as long as you don’t go nuts, you spend way more than you would have on a month’s cable subscription.

Done Deal: CBS Gives Green Light to Sitcom Based on Groupon

Daily deal giant Groupon is known for its peculiar sense of humor. There was the time the site “bought” April Fool’s Day. The introduction of marketing gimmicks like the creepy virtual discount wheel called “Clicky” can only be attributed to some offbeat sense of what’s amusing. And of course, from the beginning, subscribers have been reading Groupon’s trademark absurdist, careful-not-to-offend descriptions for deals arriving in their in-boxes. The fact that there’s a network sitcom in the works featuring Groupon is apparently no joke, however.

http://money.blogs.time.com/2009/12/30/who-are-you-kidding-new-years-money-resolutions-you-just-wont-keep/ Who Are You Kidding? New Year’s Money Resolutions You Just Won’t Keep – It's Your Money – TIME.com

[...] people I know say that when they've tried to scale back—by cooking more at home, say, or even foregoing cable TV—they don't really miss their old "lifestyle" nearly as much as they'd [...]
http://money.blogs.time.com/2010/01/05/in-the-future-no-more-%e2%80%a6-well-no-more-lots-of-things/ In the Future: No More … Well, No More Lots of Things – It's Your Money – TIME.com

[...] soon "fade to black," as the AP reported. What can you do? You could play the game and watch only movies and shows on the Internet. But, as my colleague James Poniewozik wrote, "You can watch shows for free on Hulu if you [...]
http://money.blogs.time.com/2010/01/19/shout-out-your-guide-to-cutting-the-cord-to-cable-tv/ Shout Out: ‘Your Guide to Cutting the Cord to Cable TV’ – It's Your Money – TIME.com

[...] Related: Time to Pull the Plug on Cable TV? [...]
http://money.blogs.time.com/2010/02/09/do-you-spend-less-than-2000-annually-on-internet-tv-cell-phone-service-and-video-games/ Do You Spend Less than $2,000 Annually on Internet, TV, Cell Phone Service, and Video Games? – It's Your Money – TIME.com

[...] still getting your entertainment fix takes a bit more effort. But there's an undeniable movement to cut the cable cord, which will save the average subscriber about $75 a month. That's $900 a year. How-to guides that [...]