We finally did it. The Petersons recently said good-bye to cable TV.
When we moved to Luverne nearly 18 years ago, we had two choices of cable providers, Mediacom and Knowledge.
I believe those were the company names at the time. They have changed their names so many times it’s hard to remember for sure.
We have actually subscribed to both cable companies over the years, going back and forth, based on price, service and which one carried Fox Sports North.
Back in the day, both cable companies had business offices here in Luverne, but both have long since abandoned their local business offices.
The Peterson household, like many of yours, purchased the trifecta package of landline phone, internet and cable TV. We long ago dropped the landline phone with very little drop in the trifecta package price.
So, with just internet and basic cable TV, we decided to dump the $200 cable option.
It wasn’t a tough decision, considering cable consisted of three South Dakota Public Television Stations, three Hallmark channels and at least two, maybe three, Dakota News Now stations and 30 or more channels we never watched.
Deciding to dump cable was easy, but actually getting rid of it was more complicated.
It took us months to decide what to replace cable TV with. It was the topic of family get-togethers. It was and still is a frequent topic at our morning coffee discussions and one we mostly all agree on.
Long before we took the “dump cable TV” plunge, Knowledge had become Vast, and as of today their latest company name is Bluepeak.
It’s really no secret, but Bluepeak is phasing out of the cable TV market, and landline phones won’t be far behind.
To bring an end to all this, I’ll do the math for you.
The Petersons’ monthly internet/cable TV bill was $206.
Today our monthly internet bill from Bluepeak is around $53, and after lengthy discussion we went with YouTube TV at a cost of $55. So, after adding it all up, we’ll be saving $1,176 a year – or about 11 tanks of gas.