I did the unthinkable! No TV
Well, today I did the unthinkable. I called my cable company and cancelled my cable subscription. That’s right, I’m getting rid of TV. Never thought I’d see the day. So why am I ditching television? Well, for a couple of reasons:
1) There are only 2 shows I really watch (Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, and I’ve kinda been getting into Supernatural recently). Not enough to really justify subscribing to cable. I watch a lot of news… but I can get that on the internet. And the shows… well 1 word… BITTORRENT.
2) TV is a distraction. Too often I’ll be working on something and just go in front of the tv, put on nothing and waste time. There are other, more productive things I should be doing. Like watching that new DVD that just got sent to me, writing, reading and getting my damn movie done.
3) It’ll save me about $100 a month that I’m sure I could put to better use.
So there you have it. No cable TV for me. I wonder how long I can hold out? I’m hoping this will make me more productive… but we’ll see.
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About
John Campea is the current editor for AMC Entertainment’s movie new blog (www.amcentertainment) and director of the 2007 documentary “Prince of Peace – God of War” as well as the 2009 comedy “The Anniversary”. This page is for friends, family and fans to keep up to date with what’s going on with John in his personal life and behind the scenes in the movie world. Enjoy!
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The Ramblings Of John Campea 
Lmao. Good luck with that. Haha. I couldnt do it! I give it a few months :P.
Comment by Joey 1.0 | October 19, 2006 |
i have been on this sytem for about 6 months. i have been thinking about turning it back on for the winter.
i watch alot more movies, and find more time for more interesting things like bands, shows, theater and friends.
Comment by miles | October 20, 2006 |
Wow. I’m not sure I could part with cable.
Comment by Marina | October 20, 2006 |
hi john
in the uk we dont have as many channels as you yet but we are getting there.i do think the quality of programs has gone down a lot in the past 10 years,there are still a few excellent one tho.
i agree with you about bittorrent, its fantastic for finding those hard to get shows.
try an british show called “spaced” it stars simon pegg and you will love it..
cheers dude
Comment by carl | October 21, 2006 |
Hi John,
I came across your blog brainstorming ways in which to assist my partner (who is currently in Hong Kong, I’m in Australia) find a casting studio he can hire for half a day.
He is currently in Hong Kong for two weeks performing ‘The Women In Black’ an english play you may be familiar with.
Since arriving in Hong Kong he has had a call back for a role in a new American production alongside Debra Messing.
in order to submit a final tape he needs to find a studio urgently. His agent and I are REALLY struggling to find a suitable place anywhere in Hong Kong. We are all awfully concerned he will miss a great oppotunity if he can record a tape. As you’d know work is difficult to find in the acting world-particularly in Australia. The producer in LA is very keen to see him audtion one more time and if he was successful, role would be amazing. Especially because it will be shot here in Australia in a few months.
If you know of ANYONE / ANYWHERE that would provide a room, somone who has the equipment to film a short read digitally and is able to upload the piece to email it to LA we would be eternally grateful for your assistance. of course we are willing to pay for the studio.
As ‘The Women in Black’ is on every night this week, my partner would only require the space and a camera man with their own equipment to film for a couple of hours during the daytime- hoping for this monday! ( ….urgent i know)
many many thanks!
Ps : you wont believe it but this is the first Blog I have ever seen- im enthralled!
Comment by sally | October 21, 2006 |
As i dont have a blog-
my email address is sallyr00@hotmail.com thanks!
Comment by Anonymous | October 21, 2006 |
while i do admire you trying to quit tv, i think cheating the tv companies is not fair. If you truly like a show, you should watch it when it is shown on tv and not download it illegally. why are you breaking the law? Don’t you want to support the show and the company that produces the show? I think it’s very hypocritical when people who defend studios about money issues yet download shows and who knows whatelse illegally. thanks a lot!
Comment by mero | October 30, 2006 |
No cable in the house for 5 years. It was harsh at first but as the high-speed internet got cheaper there is really no reason to go back to it. And if you really want to watch regular channels you can use the TVU Player.
God created man, and man created Bittorrent
Comment by PhoenixP3K | October 31, 2006 |
For those of you who don’t know “Mero”, he’s a troll. That’s an internet term for someone who basically has nothing better to do with his time than try to strip up trouble and talk trash where ever he goes.
He does this on other sites too.
Comment by John Campea | October 31, 2006 |
i’m not trying to troll you. I’m just telling you the way i see it. It’s just so hypocritical of you to be downloading illegally yet backing up studios about money issues. don’t you agree? Do you download movies or video games? Do you burn dvds?
If you do all those things, then you’re a hypocrite. Why is illegally downloading stuff off the internet become ok? It’s still breaking the law no matter how you look at it. You’re part of the problem!
I feel that studios have every right to decide how much to pay their actors. It is their decision and I believe they are acting with their best interest in mind no matter how much they decide to pay actors.
But illegally downloading movies and tv shows is not within their control. If a company has no control over people cheating them, then that company needs to find a way. Can’t you realise that studios need to stop product stealers like yourself?
Comment by mero | November 8, 2006 |
Oh Joy! Mero the Troll is back!
Oh yes Mero, you’re 100% right. There is ZERO difference between pirating movies and downloading TV shows.
MOVIES
1) When you pirate a movie you would have seen in theaters, you directly impact studios income.
2) If the movie is available for rent, you’ve efected the rental industry and the studios
3) If it’s available for sale via: download, then you’re effecting revenue too.
4) I don’t download pirated movies. Who wants to watch crap quality inferior product on a computer monitor? Not me. I have a Plasma 42′ TV for a reason, and it ain’t to watch downlaoded crap quality movies.
5) Why the hell would I even WANT to pirate movies when other options like buying them online, or renting through netflix or seeing them in theaters is available to me?
TV
1) I’m not about to spend $100/month to watch 2 TV shows.
2) Shows are available to watch (for a small reasonable price per episode) through iTunes or a couple of other online services. The studios have approved this.
3) These services are not yet available in Canada. But the studios assure us it’s coming soon.
4) I either download the shows now via Bittorrent and keep up with them, and then start buying them online when that option is available to me, or I stop downloading them, lose interest in the shows, and then don’t buy a single damn thing from them when the service is made available.
You do the math guenius
I have no excuse for pirating movies since there are so many available legal options to me.
TV shows are a different creature. There are no options to me, thus, me downloading them isn’t effecting the studios at all.
As a matter of fact, if I don’t download them now, I’ll lose interest in the shows, stop following them, and then won’t buy a single episode when the option is finally available to us.
So add that up. What will COST the studios more? If I
a) download the 2 shows now?
or
b) Don’t download the shows now?
Comment by John Campea | November 8, 2006 |
The downloaded movies are usually of very high quality. Anyone with a high speed internet connection could download many many movies and tv shows for FREE very quickly.. It occured to me that people nowadays don’t even need to pay for entertainment, tv movies music. It’s turned into a free commodity.
You’re breaking the law, it’s as simple as that. Your argument for your illegal downloading is basically if I keep downloading right now, I will buy later episodes online from the studios. that argument doesn’t fly with me. First off, you don’t know when this downloading service will offer your two shows. It could be next year or two years from now or whenever. So are you saying it’s basically ok for you to download illegally til the shows appear on that service? Hey you don’t want to pay, so it’s ok to download right? HAHA that’s the dumbest argument ever. Of course you don’t want to pay that’s why you download. And aren’t there cable services that are lower than $100 that would give you those two shows you want?
These tv studios make most of their money selling ads, and if people are doing what you’re doing, it is costing them much more. They are paying for these shows you watch with ad revenue. And if you don’t watch the shows on tv, those ads would be rendered useless. And these two shows are monitored with ratings. If you don’t watch it on TV, it’s hurting tv ratings which means less ad revenue which means the shows you like could be cancelled. And what does this say about the society we live in now where downloading intellectual property is acceptable and not looked down upon.
How do you think studios pay for the shows? Thru ITunes money? NO it’s thru ad revenue.
But as of right now, the movie and tv business has no control over internet piracy. Thank god it hasn’t decimated them to oblivion like it did to the music industry.
I think the problem is that cable companies need to let people pay for individual channels that they want, and not these whole package things.
Comment by mero | November 8, 2006 |
don’t you have anything to say? Or did my argument shut you up.
I just want to add some notes. first off, i want to repeat when you download “pirated” movies, they are not ‘crap’ quality. it’s quite the opposite actually.
And my main point is that downloading tv shows does effect tv companies. in fact, i fear it could mean the demise of commercial-funded tv shows. This is why studios are afraid of the internet and ti-vo which allows people to skip ads.
and i want to ask you again, aren’t there other cheaper TV packages (less than $100) that would give you those two shows that you watch?
I just don’t think your argument is a strong one. Saying that it would cost studios more if you stopped downloading now, you’d lose interest in those shows all together is just plain stupid.
Let me ask you this, Why not wait for the DVD set?
You’ve said before that you only watch 24 in that fashion. So why not do this for those two shows?
And, do you defend other people who download tv shows and movies? Do you think it’s hypocritical for you to support pirates/(blatant thieves) yet defend studios for being only in the movie business for money and not artistic ambitions? Do you think it’s responsible for studios (tv/movies) to do nothing about people like you and millions others who do download illegally?
Comment by mero | November 9, 2006 |
Mero, you’re making a fool of yourself here.
FIrst of all, you’re trying to argue points with me that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
WTF does the quality of the dowloaded movies have to do with this topic??? The only relevant point here is that I don’t download movies. That’s the only point of relevance. I’m not going to engage your troll behavior by getting dragged into an unrelated debate with you.
The “demise” if cable TV is just another step in the evolution of entertainment. Much like the “demise” of the VCR or the “demise” of the cassette tape. TV producers are already learning how to profitt from online distribution of their content.
Yes, I found 24 through DVD… because that was my only opition at the time.
Once again, you’re trying to troll another irrelevant argument. I DO NOT condone piracy. MOvies? Why did you bring up movies? I already said MULTIPLE times I don’t download movies.
TV shows? I don’t buy TV show on DVD. Period. Never will… me downloading SMallville doesn’t effect the studio because I wasn’t going to buy the dvd set anyway. I WILL by each episode of the show as soon as they are available to me like they are to almost everyone else on the planet. For now, I keep up with the show this way… then… once the shows are available to me to buy (like they are to everyone else already) then I’ll buy them.
Bottom line is, once I lose interest in a show, or stop keeping up with it, I never watch it again. If i stop watching Smallville or BSG now, I’ll lose interest. YOu can’t argue that… because you’re not me.
So no Mero, when everyone else has the option to buy the shows online, and I don’t, then I refuse to pay $75-$100/month just to watch 2 shows.
Think of that what you want. I will suport the studios when I’m treated on an equal level as everyone else. For now, I’ll continue to support them by promoting their shows on my website and podcasts, and keeping up with them the only way that is available to me at the moment… by Bittorrent.
Case closed.
Comment by John Campea | November 9, 2006 |