cable vs internet tv

for the past 3 or 4 years my husband and i have been cable free(ish). we use the internet as our form of entertainment. netflix, huluplus and amazon prime instant video have become our best friends and i've noticed as the years pass that more and more channels are allowing their content to be accessed online.

i don't miss cable. don't get me wrong, if we had it i would definitely watch it. i can binge watch hgtv like it's going out of style but even now when i watch at someone else's house it's a complete beatdown to have to wait through 20 min of commercials.

we currently have a roku in our bedroom and a chromecast in the living room. we started with our laptop hooked up to the tv but once we plugged in the chromecast we have yet to go back to the computer.
our roku allows us to watch amazon prime instant video which has a lot of free choices but you can also rent or buy a movie or tv show. pbs is also available on the roku which allows us to watch downton abbey and sherlock (which if you're not watching this show you are a complete moron).

the chromecast is probably my favorite though. we can stream netflix, youtube, hulu and hbo (yes we cheat a little bit and use friend's or family's hbogo log in info...hence the ish at the beginning) all simply by using our phones. i know it works with laptops too but ours is too old to even try out. it is a little frustrating to not be able to access amazon but the way i understand the chromecast we would be able to watch if we had an up to date laptop with the google chrome browser. you simply cast the web browser to the chromecast.

my hubby misses sports. that's about the only thing we can't get through streaming. all of the packages you can buy for baseball etc black out the local team so it's not of much use. i'm not going to lie though, it doesn't break my heart that sports aren't an option most of the time.

all in all i don't see us ever paying for cable again. i think/hope that the internet streaming will continue to grow and consumers won't be sucked into the advertising beatdown that is tv now. and sure you may have to watch a 20-30 sec commercials on some outlets (hulu) but that is completely different from the 10 min that usually come on during breaks.

**in addition to watching sherlock you really should be watching house of cards**