I’ve finally made the decision to live without Astro TV.
This is a rather major decision, having lived with Astro for almost 8 years.
Some of you may even wonder why I’m taking such a ‘drastic’ move. What would we watch on TV if we didn’t have Astro?
WHY!?!?!?
First of all, why did I come to such a decision?
- To save money. If I cancel my Astro subscription, I get to save RM600 a year. The money may not be a lot, but it helps to feed another mouth.
- Rachel is starting to get addicted to TV cartoons. I don’t want her to start learning bad things from the TV.
- TV programs don’t add much value to my life.
- The Internet has become a viable alternative.
- I’ve had several bad experiences with the company. First they allowed complete strangers to re-open an account under my name (and charge me for it), and they send me an SMS each month reminding me to pay my bill, even before the due date!
My Expectations
I’m willing to give this a try because I expect the following improvements:
- We will have better quality time. Nowadays our evenings and weekends are spent staring at the TV. Not much talking to each other.
- More time for other activities such as exercise, going for outdoor activities, or just playing board games.
- Less likely to gain weight from those tempting food commercials
- Rachel and Daryl to grow up reading books, rather than watch TV
- No more temptations to upgrade to a HD TV.
- Fewer late nights staying up to watch TV
Do take a few minutes to check out a blog post by Celestine Chua on 10 reasons to stop watching TV.
I agree with many of the reasons.
I do expect a rather difficult transition period, removing Astro TV from my house.
There are some potential difficulties:
- Rachel will be bored
- We will miss live TV events and sports events
- Poey Chin will miss her evening news
- Poey Chin will miss her TVB series
- Visitors will be bored at our home
But the TV won’t be totally gone. We will still have the free channels. We will still have a DVD player and the Nintendo Wii for entertainment purposes.
I just know that this will be for the best.
Action Plan
Here is my plan.
For the month of June, I will start to look for entertainment alternatives, and solutions to address the difficulties I foresee.
In July, we will do a trial run. I will hide the Astro smart card somewhere, and we will see how things are.
If we can live without Astro, I will then cancel my subscription shortly thereafter.
Some of you may be wondering what Poey Chin thinks about my idea. She said okay, but gives me the resigned look she gives me whenever I want to try something crazy.
Help
Do you have any resources for watching TV programs online? Do you have any tips to share?
So is life possible without Astro TV? Stay tuned for updates on my experiment!
Photo By: Thane Works / CC
June 2, 2010 at 12:16
we have never had astro. tv in fact hardly factors in my family except for the 8pm news. u will survive
we got to lead our own lives n not be dragged into tv land where the tv producers or actors etc dont even know we exist
Adino: Thanks for the encouragement!
June 2, 2010 at 12:36
Hi, Adino,
You can surely survive without Astro.
I have never had astro too. And there is no tv in my current rented flat now.
This is where I head to when I want to watch English tv series http://watch-series.com/. CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS, Lie to Me, The Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, Grey’s Anatomy, .. are all my favorites. When I first found out this site, I couldn’t help but watching one season after another. Siaoz.
There are many viewing links there, but I always choose Megavideo and zshare.net.
After I changed to Streamyx’s RM110 per month package, viewing at watch-series is good and smooth, except weekend evening.
As for Chinese tv series, you can try http://www.tudou.com. Er,.. not as good as watch-series.com.
I am sure your decision to remove astro from your life will bring benefits to your kids.
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Er, … don’t you think it’s better to unsubscribe astro once and for all instead of hiding the card to see how it goes?
Hiding the card is like there is turning back. Unsubscribing astro makes there is no turning back at all and you will do your best to find ways to explore other entertainment and activities.
Oh, by the way, there are still lots of cartoons that your girl can watch, especially on weekend mornings. I know because I sometimes go back to my old house on weekends. There is no place to go there, so I always watch tv. Ya, even cartoons.
The cartoon shows start as early as 8 something until afternoon 2 something and then start showing hindi/chinese shows at different channels.
My favorite day is Saturday and time is after 8.30 pm. There is a movie time at 10 pm at TV2, I think.. and then my favorite Criminal Minds at 12 am.. and then there is a movie at 12.30 am/1 am.
As for Sunday, nothing to watch at night.
Adino: Wow, thanks for the excellent resources Vedis!!
Unsubscribing immediately will save me one month subscription… but I’m not sure if there will be any thing to make me turn back hehe
June 3, 2010 at 05:24
haha i have astro at home but no time watch it! my mom n grand ma does it more
Adino: I also worry if mother in law comes to visit, she will have nothing to watch.
June 3, 2010 at 08:23
Hi, Adino,
Kepoh a bit. Actually there are quite some Chinese shows on TV2/7/8 in the afternoons. In fact, there are some at 11 something in the mornings.
From my past viewing experience, eh hem, … 2 pm (China series), 3 pm (Korean dramas but in chinese version and Taiwanese series/Singaporean dramas – 2 channels), 5 pm and 6pm (Singaporean shows – I have watched a few shows here. Phew, Good quality Singaporean shows), 7pm (2 channels – TVB and China dramas), 10pm (NTV7 – Local cum Singporean artistes), 11pm (NTV7 – TVB).
I don’t know if there have been changes because it’s been many months since I watched TV on week days.
If your mother-in-law is addicted to watching TVB shows, then maybe local TV channels don’t provide enough.
Adino: Waa looks like you really enjoy the Chinese shows! Actually we have a problem… we are unable to receive normal TV in our condo. I’m not sure if our antenna wall jack is damaged, or if our condo antenna is struck by lightning. Thinking of getting one of those mini antenna.
June 6, 2010 at 16:13
Sure it’s possible but this is not for me. Haha Not that I’m an Astro addict.
For your kids, yes this is good.
Let them have fun outside.
Adino: I’m not sure if we can do it either. As I’m typing in this reply, the TV is on, and everyone is just sitting at the living room staring at the TV