Left Lane

I’ve come to the conclusion that cable TV is no longer worth the hefty price tag. When I flip through the channels, I never see anything I want to watch. There are so many niche TV networks out there that as a renaissance man I am slowly getting left behind. Being a full-time student and entrepreneur in addition to being employed full-time leaves little time for being a couch potato. It’s not healthy, anyway.

This is why I’ve decided to cut out all the extended cable channels and just go with the basic channels. This covers football games, House, The Weather Channel, and though I will not get as much of the daily allotment of Seinfeld I once had on TBS, the DVDs are coming out and I’m sure those will be making their way to my collection.

In all honesty, I see the cable television industry going downhill in the near future unless they get some innovation rolling over there. iTunes now sports downloads of a lot of popular TV shows the day after they air. That means you don’t have to stay up to watch Desperate Housewives anymore. I know you appreciate that.

DVD sales of shows like Seinfeld mean a lot of folks don’t have to watch the reruns anymore. DVDs of movies OR eventually on-demand downloads of high-definition flicks over the Internet can replace cable’s role of rehashing movies on cable.

Web sites from our favorite sources like The Weather Channel and ESPN are serving up-to-date information that people can consume over the Internet at an on-demand pace rather than waiting for them on TV.

I’ve found myself listening to satellite radio more than I find myself watching my TV. It has given me more of an appreciation for radio and more of a disgust for the current state of broadcast television (and terrestrial radio for that matter). Face it: reality shows are getting old, Bob Schieffer is getting old, and putting imagination to work while listening to the radio is something we can all resurrect from the stone ages and put to good use.

And face it: there’s always ESPN.com.

Posted in Entertainment.