oogabooga, You get ESPN ... OTA?

 

No - that was an epic typo. I meant to say that we get the FOX/NBC/CBS and whatever sports they happen to have on, but NOT the cable sports networks like ESPN (or TSN for us Canucks). 

 

We've never paid for cable or satellite.  Netflix and blu-ray, pretty much exclusively.  We have little kids though, so we don't have a whole lot of time for watching anyway.  I would love to have HBO and a few other channels, for the new shows, but it would cost something like $80/month in Canada to get the necessary satellite bundle.  It's far cheaper for us to wait until they're available on blu-ray.  We don't torrent much, and never new stuff, because we're paranoid about what will happen in the wake of the new anti-piracy law passing in Canada.

 

Yeah I don't know what's going to come of those new laws, but there are caps on the amounts the courts can award (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/michael-geist/file-sharing-lawsuit-canada_b_2204518.html), so that we don't end up with a nation of Jammie Thomas's.

Dusty, I think the new seasons of Archer are on Amazon. I'm afraid to look because if there's a box set....

 

For what it's worth, we haven't had TV in twenty years. We watch the occasional show on streaming, but mostly Blu-Rays, which we either buy or get from Netflix. So what if we are three seasons behind on Mad Men.

 

There wasn't even a an adjustment. We've never missed TV. The one huge caveat is that we don't watch (or want to watch) live sports. That could be a deal breaker unless you're a real regular at your local bar.

I need all of my local teams (and pre and post game wrap ups) with absolutely no blackouts.  Not sure this is doable yet off the grid.

BT is BitTorrent, i.e. how I watch US tv... 

 

Heheh, my family is addicted to BBC, so BT is the way we can watch it, along with occasional CH4.

For those of you that like UK TV, and are in the Mac/iTunes/AppleTV ecosystem.

This http://tom-tech.com/iplayer_automator/iPlayer_Automator/Get_iPlayer_Automator.html

Makes it so simple, even Mac Users can use it (plus beef it up with additional info from here http://www.xroxy.com/proxy-country-GB.htm )

The BBC iPlayer (ipad / android/ desktop ) works great with VPN's  which may be your only option for now as

"Although US availability was also anticipated in 2011, an American launch date has yet to be announced as of the end of 2012. Reports from the summer of 2012 claim that American cable providers threatened to dropBBC America if the iPlayer, which duplicates much of the content on the cable channel, was made available in the US market. In a statement on the difficulties facing the US rollout, BBC’s Head of Communications for Global iPlayer Tessa Matchett said “The United States is a very complex media market. Currently, we have one very successful cable channel in BBC America, and we’re looking into what options we have to roll out additional platforms in that country.”^[138]

 

In addition to BT there is also usenet

Things like http://predb.me/?cats=tv make getting it easy from both sources