Do you cancel cable in the summer?
 

Does anyone else cancel cable for the summer. All the big shows are generally done by May and don't start new seasons till September.

Last year I attempted to cancel cable in the summer, cablevision just gave me discounts for 6 months so my tv bill was 0. This year I just canceled cable in December during that break in new episodes and havent even looked back. Everything I watch is available online form abc.com, nbc.com or fox's stupid myspace thing.

No.

If all you are interested in are the 'big shows' (presumably broadcast tv shows), why do you have cable to begin with?

Cancel but not just for summer!
 

Yes we only sign up for directv during football season and then cancel after.

No way! What about The Closer, Eureka, 4400 and Always Sunny in Philadelphia!?!?! -eek-

Often, in odd-numbered years. In even-numbered years there's either a World Cup or a European Cup, so having the dish signal is a must for that.

No I don't, and no offense to the OP, I can't even imagine being so strapped for cash that I would ever do this.

I have OTA HD from my Series 3 TiVo with lifetime service.

There's nothing to cancel. ;)

Missed 2 big ones: Rescue Me and Big Love.

Honestly, I tend to watch a lot more cable in the summer than broadcast tv. Gives me an opportunity to watch a lot of stuff on the History Ch., Discovery, Nat'l Geo, etc. There is hardly anything on broadcast tv I watch; not even sports except for the big golf events.

The money I'd save by canceling cable would be spent reinstating it at the end of the summer. There's always that surcharge that accompanies account changes.

I have basic cable (like 30 channels), it makes Cable Internet about $10 cheaper.

(If you have just Cable Internet here, it's like $60 a month. If you have any cable plan, then Cable Internet is $40 a month, cheapest plan being $10 so it comes out to $50.)

But it's mostly broadcast (OTA sucks here) channels and a few cheaper cable channels, like Style, TVGuide, Discovery Health and Weather.

I pride myself on not having a monthly television bill.

OTA reception is practically non existant here with any of the antennas I've tried.

Well, this summer I plan to watch Monk, the Dead Zone, the Closer, the 4400, It's Always Sunny....so, no.

No. What would I do without ESPN?

Eureka
Heartland
Kyle XY
The 4400
Monk

What does being strapped for cash have to do with anything? Some summers I watch no television at all (as I mentioned above.) Why would I pay for something I'm not using?

I don't because its too much of a hassle to get it reconnected

No, need it for baseball and other sports crap.

If not for sports, I'd ditch it all together as I pretty much only watch broadcast shows anyway. Well, technically I can't in my current place as the broadcast channels come in like shit over the air here (probably due to having a big radio station 2 blocks away).

Yep - even if I didn't watch cable during the summer, it isn't worth the hassle of having to deal with Comcast customer service.

Isn't there usually a reconnection fee?

To answer the orignal question, no as my kids are home and that would be cruel.

Do people really just spend all summer outside? I always thought was just a myth. Or maybe I just hate sunburns and mosquitoes.

For me it's just a phone call to Dish Network. :shrug:

I'm calling them next week. :) I mean we're talking about saving about $50 a month for nearly 4 months. No reconnect fee is going to be $200.

I'm canceling because I just picked up the HD-Tivo two weeks ago and I'm going strictly OTA... for good.

I spend a lot more time outside between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm in the summer, and I'm usually doing something physically active like golf, cycling, or gardening.

Other than sports, which should be read "European soccer", I don't watch more than a couple of hours of TV in a week anyway. Giving that up is no big loss.

last time I had my cable re-connected, they had to make 3 service calls. 1st time was a contractor who fried the cable boxes, 2nd time was a guy from comcast who did some wiring and ended up forgetting to bring the cable boxes, and 3rd time they finally got it right.

I almost always get at least one missed appointment/service call.

I spend a lot more, mainly in the evenings when it isn't as hot. Hit the pool, play tennis, go hiking, fishing etc. etc.

Nope, Not a Cheapo and paying 50 bucks a month isn't that big of a loss.
I watch alot of shows in primetime from fall-spring so i couldn't live without it during those 9-10 months. In the summer All I usually watch in primetime is Hell's Kitchen and i watched Windfall last summer.
I basically watch just DVD's in the summer (I watch alot of DVD's during the primetime season too). To me its just not worth cancelling cable for 4-5 months.
Ohh.. and Conan, Craig & Kimmel are still new in the summer so there is no way i would cancel cable in the summertime. I don't have a lake house or anything so exept for all the primetime shows taking a break, My summer is almost the exact same as the rest of the year-WORK, DVD, PRIMETIME TV etc...

It hardly requires a lake house to do things differently in the summer. :D

I just do less DVD and TV and spend more time outside in the evenings and weekends from late spring through early fall as the weather sucks here from late fall through early spring.

What is this Outside you speak of?

That's another reason why I don't want to pay for tv - I don't want my daughter to grow up and spend her weekends/summers in front of the television.

Craziest idea I've ever heard proposed.

I keep mine year round. There's still a bunch of stuff I watch during the summer.

The 4400, Eureka, and baseball are some of the immediate ones that come to mind.

The 4400, Big Love, Eureka, Kyle XY, and several other shows provide good entertainment on boring summer nights...

Between sports and the occasional HD movie its just enough to justify the bill. With HBO now starting shows up during the summer its even more reason.

A big part of it is that it's a complete pain to get service reconnected and take an entire afternoon off work to wait around for the service guy to show up.

No mention yet of Psych? I used to look forward to Monk in the summers, but my anticipation of a new season of Psych is a hundred times greater than another ho-hum season of Monk this summer.

I can't wait for more of The Closer. One of my favorite police procedurals on the air.

And The 4400 has been consistently entertaining.

I don't have to...don't have cable. I haven't had cable in 7 years. Never regretted it for a second.