Cutting the Cable: Can Internet Replace Your TV?

With more premium streaming video available than ever before, we had to wonder what it would be like to like to ditch the cable and satellite companies and rely only on the internet for TV shows. Once we started asking around, however, we found that many people had already done so.

For this story, we interviewed two people who've said "no" to traditional TV: Kimberly Maxwell, a 22-year-old medical student in Philadelphia, and Luis Villegas, a 39-year-old musician and guitar teacher living in Los Angeles. While their reasons, home environments, and even streaming methods couldn't be more different, they're both thrilled with their decision.

Kimberly
When she attended West Point, frequent TV-watching wasn't an option, so Kimberly Maxwell never became television-obsessed. While she could have easily gotten her own set now that she's a first-year med student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, she chose not to.

"When I moved to Philadelphia I didn't have a TV already, and the first couple months I was here I found I was just really never home to watch it so I didn't get one. When school started, I really didn't have time for it."

Instead, Kimberly watches the few programs she enjoys on her 14.1-inch laptop screen, which suits her fine for solo viewing. She admits that it doesn't work well when company is over.

"The only weird thing about not having a television is entertaining people. You come over to someone's apartment and it's kind of a failsafe to just turn on the TV and they can watch TV and you can go about whatever you need to do. But I don't really have that option so there's a lot more going out, a lot less sitting around."

Hulu is Kimberly's site of choice, and she rarely strays from it when choosing shows. Her favorites include The Office and Life. Hulu is especially popular with soldiers on deployment, she says.

While she can't catch every popular show—she has a friend who often talks about ridiculous reality shows that Kimberly can't find online—that doesn't bother her. "I don't really feel like I'm missing out on much," she says with a laugh. She stresses that anyone relying on internet video needs to be flexible: there are many shows you just won't find.

Economics were a factor, but only a slight one, in her decision to go with streaming video. She doubts she would watch enough to justify the cost of cable. Mostly, however, she simply finds that online TV fits her life better. She can see the few programs she enjoys whenever she wants. While she's considered getting a Netflix account, enough of her friends have one that it satisfies her need for occasional movies. Several of her friends have also made the switch to solely streaming video, and she thinks that young people are more willing to give up regular TV.

"I've never lived in a city like this. There's so much culture and art here, why watch it on a screen when you can go out and see some pretty amazing things in person?"

Luis
As a husband and father of two, Luis had a tougher road in giving up traditional TV: He had to sell his family on the idea. His wife was easy to convince, since she was never an avid viewer, but the kids needed reassurance.

"If it was just me, I would have done it in a heartbeat, but it took me a little while to convince my kids," he says. "I had to convince them that we'd have to do it a different way, but that they could still watch most of the shows that they liked. They're seven- and nine-years-old, so they're young but old enough to grasp the concept that okay, this isn't cable anymore, this is the computer."

Economics played more of a role in Luis's decision. He's a professional musician, and when bookings slowed down during the current recession, he and his wife looked for expenses they could cut. The $60/month TV bill seemed a good place to start.

"In times like these, people are having fewer parties, so my workload isn't as heavy as normal. We're dependent on people wanting to hear live music," he says.

They had to move from DSL to broadband to have a connection fast enough for streaming, but they're still saving $35 per month overall. Plus, the faster connection makes it easier to do other things online.

With a Macintosh computer already connected to his living room's 50-inch HD plasma flat screen, Luis was a natural for Boxee. He's been using it since February and loves the selection and convenience.

"Somebody turned me on to Hulu and I thought, wow, this has almost everything I watch on regular television. Then somebody turned me on to Boxee, which aggregates content from different networks like CBS and CNN." He's also tried Plex, which is available for Macs.

While Luis is flexible, some shows, including 24, House, and Survivor, had to be online for him to make the switch, since he and his wife watch them together. The one thing he misses is full CNN shows.

"On Boxee, they do have a CNN channel which is more excerpts, I think—a little bit of this, a little bit of that," he says. "There are no full programs on there. That was one that we miss the most: we'd watch AC360 and The Larry King Show, mostly. I haven't watched those since we moved over to online."

While most of his family's shows come from Boxee, his kids stream their favorites from Cartoon Network's site. The added effort to watch streamed programs seem to keeps them from watching too much, he says. One of the side perks of the switch has been that his kids now watch less television and spend more time playing.

"They either will play with their toys at home or listen to music, so it kind of helped out," he says.

His family also enjoys a Netflix account with unlimited streaming, and since that works with Boxee they can easily download movies whenever they like. The Netflix interface is a winner, he says, as even his less tech-savvy wife can select a movie with ease.

The move to online programming has worked out so well for Luis, that he doesn't see himself returning to cable when his business improves.

"I don't really plan on going back. If we did, it wouldn't be for me; it would probably come from either my kids or my wife, but they seem fine, too. This might be detrimental to the cable companies."

As online options grow, we expect a lot more people to follow the path set by Kimberly and Luis, ditching regular TV and embracing online video.

[Note: Peter Kafka from All Things Digital's Media Memo will be moderating a panel at Streaming Media East on May 12 called "Bridging TV and Broadband and Cutting the Cable."