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Pausing a show mid-scene for a commercial? Are they serious?

Hey Bill! Here's your sign.

[YouTube] TBS pause advertisements (via TV Squad)

By the end of next week, I'll officially be free from cable TV. I called AT&T and ordered DSL on Tuesday. Yesterday I called Comcast and cancelled my digital cable and internet service. DSL goes live on the 11th. Cable goes dead on the 12th.

Lest anyone misunderstand what I'm doing here, I won't have a true television feed of any kind coming into my home. No DirecTV. No Dish Network. No AT&T U-Verse. Nothing. I don't even receive local channels over the way with good enough reception to rely upon. If I can't get it over the Internets, I can't watch it. Period. And if my research is accurate, I won't be sacrificing much in terms of available programming. I am a TV addict, and I don't expect this decision to change that.

The cost savings is amazing. My monthly cable/internet bill from Comcast was averaging aboout $165, while my new DSL runs $34 per month. Sure, there will be some taxes and fees on top of that, and I'll spend a little here and there for shows on Amazon Unbox and iTunes, but even on the worst month I don't expect to pay more than about $50 or $55.

And yes, I'm giving up a bit in picture and audio quality, but that's a small price to pay. I've already watched plenty of broadcasts on my computer and iPod to be used to that by now, and frankly it doesn't matter to me that much.

As this little experiment begins, I'll be sure to keep you posted about how things are working out.

When I opened my mailbox earlier today, I was at first excited to see the new issue of "Entertainment Weekly" waiting inside (it was a day late), but my happy feelings evaporated immediately upon seeing the cover. The entire issue -- a double issue -- was devoted exclusively to the new "Sex and the City" movie.

You might assume that my negative reaction is because I disliked the HBO series. That's not the case. In fact, while my subscription to HBO came and went during the show's run, whenever I had the channel in my lineup I was a regular viewer. Sure, it wasn't my favorite show, and my sometimes prudish tendencies clashed with Samantha's sensibilities (not to mention Carrie's infidelity with Big while dating Aiden), but I watched and enjoyed the show on a regular basis.

Instead, my disappointment upon seeing EW's theme issue stems from the fact that I don't want a SATC movie. I don't want any changes to the happily-ever-after series finale. After 94 episodes of D-R-A-M-A, the show ended on an up note for all four ladies, but most of that happiness seems poised for evaporation, all for the sake of milking the SATC brand name for cinematic glory. Judging from the movie's ads and trailer, something derails Carrie and Big's wedding, Samantha appears to have strayed from live-in boyfriend Smith, and Steve has done something to betray Miranda. Sigh.

Sometimes stories need to end, no matter how much we may miss them. I don't want "The Sopranos" to cut back from black. I don't need to find out what happened after Jerry and the gang got out of jail on "Seinfeld." And I hope I never find out for sure whether Marlo Stanfield stayed out of the game for good on "The Wire." HBO didn't cancel "Sex and the City." The show's creative team was given the opportunity to end things on their own terms, and they did so in fine fashion. In 2004. Anything after that is unnecessary.

I've been ruminating for the last few weeks about the possibility of canceling my cable television subscription. Anyone familiar with my viewing habits will instantly recognize this as a significant moment, but this is hardly an attempt to ditch television altogether. While this decision would definitely curb my ability to channel surf or catch a movie on HBO by chance, my intent is to miss as little of my current "planned" television watching as possible. That is, I want to find alternatives to watching my favorite shows on live TV (or more accurately recorded from live TV via TiVo).

The alternative many people will immediately suggest is DVD. I know Josh routinely waits until a show is available on DVD, then puts in his Netflix queue. Sadly, I'm not quite there yet. I need the immediacy of watching a show within a few days of its original broadcast. This may be an unnecessary conceit, but I have to take baby steps, folks.

The way I see it, there are three options readily available to me: Amazon Unbox, the iTunes Music Store, and free episode streaming on the internet. For financial reasons, free streaming is the best option. After all, it would kinda defeat the purpose of this little quest if my Amazon and iTunes purchases added up to more than my cable bill. And yes, I know I can get just about any show for free via Bittorrent, but I'm keeping things legal here.

Here's a list of all the shows I watch along with their best availability from a non-cable alternative:

30 Rock
Free streaming (NBC.com)

Battlestar Galactica
Free streaming (SCI FI Rewind)

Bones
Free streaming (Fox.com)

CSI
Free streaming (CBS.com)

Family Guy
Free streaming (Fox.com)

House
Free streaming (Fox.com)

How I Met Your Mother
Free streaming (CBS.com)

Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Amazon Unbox ($1.99/episode)

Lost
Free streaming (ABC.com)

The Office
Free streaming (NBC.com)

Saturday Night Live
Some free streaming (selected skits on NBC.com)
Amazon Unbox ($1.99/episode)

Scrubs
Free streaming (NBC.com)

South Park
Free streaming (SouthParkStudios.com)

Top Chef
NONE

So "Top Chef" and "Saturday Night Live" would be the big sacrifices here. I can probably get by with the clips that SNL posts online, but I would miss "Top Chef" tremendously. Would I miss it enough to singlehandedly justify a monthly cable bill of over $50? Absolutely not. Besides, I can certainly plan one trip to the gym per week based on when I can catch "Top Chef" on the elliptical.

This analysis, of course, fails to take into account special broadcasts, like sports and award shows. Honestly, though, I rarely watch sports anymore and I just don't see spending hundreds of dollars each year just to watch an overly long Oscar broadcast.

So, this pretty much seals the deal that I'll be ditching my cable within the next couple of weeks. The only question is how much my internet bill will increase once it goes a la carte instead of being bundled with my digital cable.

Who knows? Maybe DSL will be cheaper.

UPDATE (2:50pm): Since publishing this post, I discovered that SNL is available for purchase from Amazon Unbox for $1.99, so those selected clips on NBC.com aren't the only option.