"1500 Stations and Nothing But Cats" or Whatever Happened to Cable TV?

Della

Della

Well-known Member
Location
Ohio
I loved "Better Call Saul," so I was excited that the lead actor had a new show on AMC -- only to find out I had to get AMC+ to watch it. TMC is showing fewer and fewer classics (that should be before 1960) and showing more and more 1980's movies. Just now I was excited to see a new "Frasier" is on CBS, but only for two episodes, after that I have to pay for Paramount+.

It's as if the minute they get something good they make you pay extra for it and I'm already paying a fortune. My husband watches the SyFy station at night and my son watches sports but I rarely turn it on at all.

What are the rest of you watching?
 

There are quite a few solid streaming services where much or most of the content is free (with advertising breaks). Pluto TV is in the top tier, and it is organized a bit like an old-timey cable TV service for "live" channels but also offers many of the supported shows on demand where you can pick your episode. The Roku Channel is good, and Tubi is as well. There are tons of others too, some generalized and others specialized by content genre.

 

Times are really tough when looking for something light to watch. Until they start producing new shows again, we’re stuck with oldies or paying for extra streaming. I can’t justify it. I’ve been PVRing Kimmel or similar.

Adding: there really wasn’t much to watch before the writers strike and I have a premium package.
 
Della, don't forget that you can subscribe to streaming platforms and cancel after you've watched what you want to see, then resubscribe again for new seasons, if you want, so you can work within your budget. I decided to stay within the $40 that I've read is the average for what people pay for streaming services. Sometimes I cancel Netflix. I'm about to do it again because of streaming issues using my Roku, plus they went up even more as of yesterday which makes their increase over the past several months more than 100%!

I have a ridiculous amount of programming on my watchlists on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, (P+) Peacock+ (PC+), Disney+ and Discovery+. I also have the Roku channel, of course but hardly watch anything on that. When I went to cancel Paramount+ a few months ago, they gave me 2 months free to stay. I'll cancel again for a few months near the end of the year. Prime is courtesy of my MetroPCS cell phone plan and my son pays for Disney.

Right now among the many shows on my watchlists, I'm watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Aerial America (P+), The Irrational, Night Court, Found and Departure (PC+), Queen Charlotte (Netflix), rewatching Moonlighting (1985) on Hulu as well as a couple of UFO documentaries (Hulu and Prime). I love watching the beachfront home buying shows on Discovery+. I also have several movies on my list, including Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (P+) and Avatar The Way of Water (Disney), both of which I started. I intend to watch The Burial (Prime) soon. I heard it's very good.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Della, don't forget that you can subscribe to streaming platforms and cancel after you've watched what you want to see, then resubscribe again for new seasons, if you want, so you can work within your budget. I decided to stay within the $40 that I've read is the average for what people pay for streaming services. Sometimes I cancel Netflix. I'm about to do it again because of streaming issues using my Roku, plus they went up even more as of yesterday which makes their increase over the past several months more than 100%!

I have a ridiculous amount of programming on my watchlists on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, (P+) Peacock+ (PC+), Disney+ and Discovery+. I also have the Roku channel, of course but hardly watch anything on that. When I went to cancel Paramount+ a few months ago, they gave me 2 months free to stay. I'll cancel again for a few months near the end of the year. Prime is courtesy of my MetroPCS cell phone plan and my son pays for Disney.

Right now among the many shows on my watchlists, I'm watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Aerial America (P+), The Irrational, Night Court, Found and Departure (PC+), Queen Charlotte (Netflix), rewatching Moonlighting (1985) on Hulu as well as a couple of UFO documentaries (Hulu and Prime). I love watching the beachfront home buying shows on Discovery+. I also have several movies on my list, including Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (P+) and Avatar The Way of Water (Disney), both of which I started. I intend to watch The Burial (Prime) soon. I heard it's very good.
Click to expand...
I have a lot of shows in the My Stuff section on Hulu plus I have multiple free tv sites.
 
Since TCM is playing less and less interesting movies, I now watch a local channel
called 'Movies', it's part of the MeTV network.

Great 'Film Noir' films is all they play.
I have a pretty good working knowledge of movies from the 30's/40's/50's, but
they will throw me a curve and show a movie unknown to me.
Have added to my collection due to this channel, which is a good thing.
 
Feelslikefar said:
Since TCM is playing less and less interesting movies, I now watch a local channel
called 'Movies', it's part of the MeTV network.

Great 'Film Noir' films is all they play.
I have a pretty good working knowledge of movies from the 30's/40's/50's, but
they will throw me a curve and show a movie unknown to me.
Have added to my collection due to this channel, which is a good thing.
Click to expand...

I agree. I love film noir. What annoys me about TCM is that they play the same well-known noir films over and over again. I guess watching “Casablanca” a hundred times isn't enough. :rolleyes: Aside from Eddie Muller's “Noir Alley”, I'm kind of sick of TCM. I watch “movies”, too. You're right; at least they mix it up and throw in a curve ball. They run noir films on Thursdays and Sundays.

Lately, I've been enjoying season 2 of “Why Women Kill”. It's a dark comedy. Prime Video has season 1, and you can also watch it on Paramount +. Season 2 of “Shining Vale” just started, so I'm also watching that. It's comedy-fantasy-horror. It's not my usual fare; it's pretty off-the-wall, but I like it. I'm always up for a western, and I've seen a few fairly recent ones that were pretty good.

You'd think that with a gazillion channels, you could find something good to watch, but most of it stinks.

Season 1 Trailer


Season 1 Trailer


 
Thanks for the tips everyone.
Feelslikefar said:
Since TCM is playing less and less interesting movies, I now watch a local channel
called 'Movies', it's part of the MeTV network.

Great 'Film Noir' films is all they play.
I have a pretty good working knowledge of movies from the 30's/40's/50's, but
they will throw me a curve and show a movie unknown to me.
Have added to my collection due to this channel, which is a good thing.
Click to expand...
Oh thanks I will check that out! Film Noir is my favorite genre. I talk old movies on this little forum
Home | Classicfilmtvradio and they link to obscure online channels and can find almost anything.
A few of us watch an old melodrama online "together" every Sunday, making comments as we go.
We'd love to have more people like you and Bella join us.
 

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