If you're debating whether to get a sattelite or not, debate no longer.

I couldn't see myself spending more for TV than I was. I was up to $52 a month, and just after I cancelled cable it would have gone to $55. This was without any premium movie channel packages. I got IFC, Fox Movies, TCM, and AMC, but those were all bundled with regular cable. I also had a second receiver so two separate shows could be viewed/taped. When my cable cost me $46 a month, I would have been able to get Total Choice, plus local networks, plus an extra room for about the same price as my cable, but I would have had to buy equipment and install, and I would have been into it $300. I'd get a bunch more basic stations, but I'd lose IFC, which I did not want to lose, and to add a movie package that included it would certainly give me a lot of movie channels, but would jack the price by $10 a month. Well, times changed.

Directv has gone up by about 20% of what my cable has gone up, and it's much easier to find free installation, which even comes with a perk (I'm supposed to get free movie rentals for a year - 1 per week at Blockbuster any day now). I realized that if I dropped the extra room (basically I can count on one hand the number of times I've wanted to watch one show and tape another because everything gets rerun now days and I never have time to watch stuff I've taped anyway), but did opt for the local channels. Now my bill is 51.04, I was paying 51.79 for over a year, and it was going up by $2 or $3 the month after I cancelled it. I'm seeing a $4+ per decrease in my TV expenditures. The only extra expense I had was $20 on a remote control extender so I can change the channel from whatever room I'm in...it was easy to use my existing cable wiring to run my Directv to every room in the house.

Now, I get probably 70 more channels than I used to, and I watch probably 30 to 40 of them on a regular basis. There is never 'nothing' on anymore. If you like music, the triple combo of MTV2, Canada's MuchMusic, and the 31 Music Choice stations you get beat the hell out of MTV and VH1. I had probably 4 movie channels bundled with my basic cable, now I have close to 20. I have a lot more informational channels, health channels, educational channels. I get BBC America which has tons of Brittish comedy. My wife and I are addicted.

For the cons, their overwhelming demand caused me to be jerked around o-plenty! I signed up on December 2 for a system, was promised a December 30 date. They called and told me they'd moved me to March 2. I complained, they moved me to January 27. I specified morning, the day of they changed it to afternoon, I made them reroute. I had a hard time getting through on their phones, got disconnected and still haven't seen my free rentals. They did give me $32 off my first month's bill however, so that more than paid my expenditure for the remote extender!

Long and short, unless your cable company has tons of channels and they don't charge much for them, and you'd like to get more channels for less money, sign up for the next free install you see.

Recommended: Yes

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