For 13 years, Scott and I have watched television through Dish Network, a satellite company I’m sure many of you are familiar with. With all our moves over the years, it was just handy, reliable and less stressful to keep with the same company.
One of my favorite things offered by many companies is the digital video recorder. We recorded everything. I had no clue what day shows aired. My shows were just magically available to watch whenever it was convenient for me. But the best part of having a DVR…fast forwarding through commercials. I rarely saw one and it’s amazing how quickly a show can be watched without someone trying to sell me something.
For the past several years our household has also enjoyed Netflix, an online streaming video company that mails out DVDs too. Movies and television series can be watched simply by choosing something out of their library with no commercial interruption. You can even rate what you’ve viewed by a star-rating system and they’ll suggest other shows or movies you might enjoy. I find this very handy and I absolutely love when I get an email stating a new season from my favorite shows is waiting for me to watch.
Over the past year or so, tho, I have been intrigued by my friends raving about Hulu, also an online subscription video on demand service. The jewel in Hulu’s crown is that you don’t have to wait an entire season to watch your show. You can watch it the following day after it’s been aired. And depending on how much you want to spend, you’ll either have commercials or no commercials to endure.
Too many watching options! (I won’t even tell you about the one we have through Amazon.) So we looked closely at the costs of the different companies and took the plunge. We put Dish on hold and purchased a trial period of Hulu and downloaded the app.
Then the summer Olympics aired. Oops. We didn’t consider live television. In this day and age I just figured we could buy an Olympic pass, but I never found one. You had to have some sort of television subscription. Needless to say, we didn’t catch much of the Olympics this year. Shawn and I did catch a five-minute window of gymnastics when the guy from France broke his leg. And when we were at a hotel for a couple nights we watched then too. I didn’t feel very patriotic this year as I mainly caught highlights in the evening and couldn’t be the avid watcher I usually am during the Olympics.
I told Scott we better figure it out before the winter Olympics start in 2018.
When we couldn’t watch the Olympics, I immediately asked about football. We aren’t die-hard fans, but I can’t imagine not catching some football action every week or not having our little family Super Bowl party. Luckily, I think Scott has figured something out with, you guess it, another app.
We happened to do this change in the midst of decluttering or minimizing our possessions. So guess what? We sold one of our televisions, too.
Our subscription to Dish is officially over, our television watching is now controlled by apps on our phones and we can still watch local news, weather and sports (if you call Bismarck local) online through the station’s website.
Not having “normal” television at our fingertips has definitely decreased screen time around here (unless I’m on a Netflix binge) and that’s okay. There’s plenty of other things to do to occupy our time.
Truth be known, tho, I love ending my day on the couch watching a show or two with my husband after our son has gone to bed. It’s the perfect way for me to unwind and quiet my mind.
