All I am Really Looking for is Options

This blog was started with the goal of helping other people quit cable by creating a source of what works and doesn't work.  That being said, I don't want to be completely villainous towards the cable companies.  Quitting cable in the way laid out in this blog won't be for everyone.  If you enjoy the service and think it is worth the cost, that is awesome.

I however, didn't like the price and really didn't enjoy the service.  What I am looking for is options.  Currently my local cable company can't provide me with the options that work with my life.

Lets take a step back and look at the music industry.  Being 26, I grew up at the height of Napster's popularity.  Music to me wasn't really about albums anymore, but about finding all these rad artists, making mix CDs, and then going to their concerts.  This was clearly a terrible model for record industry.  Their customers can now just go online and have anything they like at their finger tips, rather than going into the CD shop and spending upwards of twenty bucks.

Moving forward a few years, services like the iTunes Music Store and later amazon.com/mp3 (my personal favorite) came around.  What these services allowed the customer to do was get the song or two they wanted at a reasonable price.  They are proving to be a hit, iTunes alone has sold more then 6 billion songs.  The big thing now is that the consumer has plenty of options to get the music they want.  Stores still sell CDs, you can subscribe to music services, or pay per track.

I've never had a problem with paying for media, just as long as I don't feel like I am getting bent over in the deal.  This is why I went looking for options when it came to the television shows I watch.  I don't want to be shoehorned into one model of delivery simply because it is what works for most people.  As a consumer I have the option to let my dollar (or my eyes - when it comes to ads) do my talking.

As technology advanced more and more playback devices are going to be in the living rooms and palms of consumers.  They are going to look at their Apple TV or iPhone and say, "Why do I have to pay $2 to get the latest episode of 'The Office' on my iPhone and also pay $60 a month to the cable company, why don't I just pay the $2?"

If a cable company could provide me with an a la carte option, I would be a subscriber again.  But to charge me for channels that I simply won't watch seems insane.  I would rather rely on over the air service and the iTunes Store, amazon.com/vod, and Netflix to fill in the rest.

In the end, I am simply a consumer and will always be looking for cheaper options that allow me more flexibility.