My ISP is the legacy telco in Canada, Bell. As I currently live in a fairly rural area, this is my only option for high speed Internet. It is a good option as I have fiber to the home and can have up to a gigabit connection. I was subscribing to Internet only with no TV services. I didn’t missed watching TV really as I am not often home and I have plenty of options to watch video content via the Internet.

But… I though that my Internet bill was a bit high for the short time that I was home. So I called Bell to ask for a downgrade in speed… and here’s what they proposed me: They would lower my bill by 30% while leaving me with the same connection speed… if I would accept to subscribe to their TV service!

That’s right, my total bill, Internet and the added TV service , would be 30% lower than the Internet alone!

Just as I though I was out… they pull me back in!

Indeed, after 6 years without a TV service, here I was back with the Bell “set-top box”. Am I using it? Yes, I do. Do I watch TV channels in real time with it? Almost never. One thing that I like since I am on the road a lot nowadays, is their mobile application that allow me to record and watch my subscribed channels remotely on my phone and tablet.

I don’t like the geographical restrictions that the application enforce though. For instance, even though I subscribe legally to channels presenting NFL games, I can’t watch those live if I am outside of Canada. Thankfully, I also have a Sling box so I can get around that easily. Still, it’s a little antiquated to enforce those rules and it encourages piracy.

Now that I have that service, I use it but really, I very rarely watch TV anyhow. It’s mostly convenient so it incite me to watch a little TV still. But, with our Netflix and Amazon Prime Video subscriptions, it’s very rarely that we watch TV. And the few time I watch it, it’s often because I live in Canada. For instance, I did like to watch Star Trek: Discovery. If I lived in the USA, I would watch it online on CBS All access… but that service doesn’t present it in Canada so I have to subscribe to the “Space” channel on my TV service.

Bottom line is: I still watch TV… a little. However, the clock is ticking fast and I have few remaining reasons to do so.

Do you still watch TV?