By Norman E. Morin

Do you pay too much to the cable company?

About 50 years ago, it was much easier to watch television. You purchased a television at a big-box store and waited for the television to be delivered. The biggest obstacle was setting up an antenna. Do you remember the procedure to find the correct rabbit-ear antenna orientation?

"That's it! Don't move!"

Adventurous TV viewers climbed roofs to install and align monstrous antennas. Try getting on the roof to point an outside antenna for perfect reception during a thunderstorm.

There were no "clickers." The television was turned on to one station and it stayed on that station. Remember that rotary dial that clunked when you changed channels?

In the 1970s, the public was introduced to cable television. Initially, it was a tough sell. "Why pay for something that was free?" Eventually, cable television became the standard way to watch television, but the public actually paid for television signals to be piped into their households. What a deal, we pay for advertisers to access our homes.

Fast forward to today. ...

The cable companies seem to have a price that they want to extract from each household. The magic number seems to be in the $200 range. The cable companies invest in an installation and collect their monthly "rent."

It is extremely tempting to accept plans and higher prices to receive a particular programming channel. Just say no. You don't need to pay for services that you don't use.

You can drastically reduce your cable bill but actually increase your selection of things to watch. If your cable company provides your Internet service, you can use the cable company to help reduce your monthly cable-television bill.

In the Merrimack Valley, we are fortunate to have strong television signals. It is pretty easy to receive major broadcast stations. That takes care of local news, but what about entertainment? There are some Internet services that will provide television shows and movies when you want to view them.

Your computer can actually serve as a "cable box." Do some browsing and check out the video and entertainment services available on the Internet. Two popular services are and

Some services are not free but may be worth a monthly expense. If your TV is not Internet ready, check out and The Roku and AppleTV boxes make it easy to connect your TV to the Internet.

If your cable company provides your telephone service, consider using or to reduce your cable bill, too.

Check out some of the alternatives to accepting a package that provides all of your television and communications needs from the cable company. You might be pleasantly surprised.
