Breaking away from cable TV has been tougher than I thought. The original plan was to cancel cable at the beginning of January. The excuse I gave myself for not canceling at the time was my larger computer wasn’t finished yet. When I got it finished, it was around Martin Luther King Day and there was a special on MSNBC I ‘wanted’ to see. When the time came I ended up watching it the next day, meaning early morning, on the channel but the series was already uploaded on their site.

I was set to call and cancel on 1/26 but the State of the Union address was on the next day and I was bound and determined to see it. I ended up listening to it on the radio.

Now it’s 1/28 and very early in the morning and I’m pretty sure I’m ready to bite the bullet.

Why has it been so long to make the call and get rid of it?

I think its habit more than anything. I’ve gone over all the numbers in my head and getting rid of cable television makes fiscal and logical sense. Most of the programs I watch I can see online or they are available in HD on free airwaves. Other than news channels I don’t watch much TV. In most cases it’s just background noise. Just yesterday when I was trying to get information on the new iPad, I went to CNBC for some news on it but it was talking heads analyzing information given to them by someone in the audience. A quick online search got me a live feed from the event and if I wanted to see their analysis I could go online for it.

It was kind of the same thing for the State of the Union. I heard it on the radio and that was great, but this morning I was able to go online and get the analysis I wanted. Even better I could go to MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews and get a cross section of information rather than sticking to one network then going online and getting the others.

The other reason for the delay, honestly, has been laziness. I dread having to call them to cancel cable TV because it feels so final. I know I’m not going to miss anything but there is a convenience of having the channels at my disposal. The thing is I’m not using the channels. The $50 a month I pay for just basic cable, no HD channels or premium channels, could be used for something else or saved.

I hate thinking about making the call but as soon as they open up I have to do it.

UPDATE: The call has been made and cable will be gone Feb 1. Of course they tried to get me to stay, offering me a not too rosy offer of a 25% discount for six months. I explained to them when I signed up I was promised a discount for 3 months, but it didn’t occur and when I called to complain I was told the package I had wasn’t part of the package. Interesting since it was on their website when I set it up yet was gone when I called and then was back a few weeks later.