This month marks the one year anniversary of our Post-TV experiment and while it is often hard to read Management on these things I am willing to judge it a success. However, there were some surprises in terms of consumption patterns and costs. Below are the numbers in the past year that we have spent at Amazon, iTunes, and Netflix:
Amazon Subscriptions
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Volume 6 – $18.90
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Volume 7 – $18.90
Deadliest Catch Season 4 – $30.24
Deadliest Catch Season 5 – $13.23
Guns, Germs, & Steel – $5.67
Swords Season 1 – $15.12
Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World Season 1 – $18.90
Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern Season 4 – $18.90
Out of Egypt Season 1 – $11.34
Mad Men – $24.57
Shark Week 2009 – $11.34
Total – $187.11
iTunes Purchases
It’s the Great Pumpkin – $9.99
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving – $9.99
A Charlie Brown Christmas – $9.99
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown – $9.99
Arthur Season 11 – $9.99
Arthur Season 10 – $9.99
Dinosaur Train – $12.99
LazyTown – $17.82
Little Bill – $13.99
Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies – $6.93
Martha Speaks – $24.99
National Geographic Channel Kids – $6.93
Oswald – $19.99
Sesame Street Vol 1 – $19.99
Sesame Street Vol 2 – $19.99
Sid the Science Kid – $16.97
Smithsonian Kids – $3.97
Super Why! – $9.99
The Adventures of Paddington Bear – $12.87
The Wind In The Willows Season 1 – $10.99
The Wind In The Willows Season 2- $10.99
Wallace and Gromit – $6.88
Wonder Pets – $19.80
WordWorld Season 1 – $10.89
Yo Gabba Gabba Season 2 – $17.91
Total – $324.82
Netflix
12 months @ $18.01/month – $216.12
MLB Live
$35 per year
Grand Total – $763.05
The biggest thing that struck me as I tallied up the numbers for the past year is that the costs of media acquisition are upfront and largely erratic when compared to the predicable subscription costs of cable or satellite as we found out in an effort to obtain programming for Gabi since pulling an over-the-air TV signal was an unmitigated disaster. What we saw in terms of outlay was a steep curve when we gave up on trying to get local programming and sought it on iTunes but after that initial binge purchases dropped off considerably–a little more than half of that iTunes total occurred in April. Amazon, on the other hand, has been relatively smoother with only a slight bump in late spring which oddly coincided with a weekend spent in a hotel with cable programming.
So while the total numbers are eye opening, an average of $60.67/month, I suspect that the next year will see these costs to continue to drop for a number of reasons. The large bump in costs was centered around going with a Plan B to make up for our inability to get a PBS signal over the air. Looking at the receipts I’d argue that our overall purchases are declining at a rapid rate because we have more content than we can watch based on our current media consumption behaviors. Which brings us to the biggest reason of all: we are hardly watching TV. Rather we are listening to music and reading or surfing the Internet, when we do watch TV it is in very focused bursts for a movie or a string of episodes.
Next year, I imagine the average monthly cost to decline by some 30-40% which would see us realize a substantial savings over the cable bill we had shouldered ($125/month for a satellite subscription through Dish and prior to that $145/month for a cable subscription, no Internet, through Comcast). While the savings is great really the biggest benefit that I am gleaning from the experience is a clearer head and a feeling that my free time is more productive.
Life outside the walled garden of subscription programming is just fine.
surprised to see you put cash outlays on the food/travel media. isn’t that stuff pretty accessible thru your local library? we’ll watch zimmern from time to time but i would not spend cash and go thru the effort of archiving.
we’re set to ditch comcast – probably for directv – signal is not great and i hate shelling out 8bux a month for their digital box (rent!)
by the by, we just came across a great flim we watched with the boys – “october sky” – gabby’s too young for it + it may just be a bit more “boy centric” than your homefront consumes…but really well written + the feel-good side of it drives you knee deep into the extras. library special = a week for a buck! put it on your list and give it a full evening.
Yeah, my feeling is that the bulk of the Amazon purchases fall under the “behavioral transition” category and likely will slow and fade (with the exception of Mad Men as that is Management’s one vice that I am loathe to let her abstain from). But the purchases (more like extended leases based on a one time license payment) from Amazon are also based on a convenience factor, they handle the storage and it is easily accessed from a browser (Linux too, which is a plus compared to Netflix’s Mac/Windows only streaming service) or the Roku. I honestly see that outlay dropping to something in the $60/year range as the farther we get away from the traditional broadcast schedule the more likely we’ll be compelled to jump on anything current. For example we stopped watching 30 Rock and The Office on Hulu for Red Dwarf and Jeeves and Wooster which if anything makes for interesting water-cooler talk…
As for the library, when we perused the video collection we were largely disappointed by the collection, particularly the children’s, as it was mostly VHS and what DVDs they had in circulation didn’t interest us or were readily available through Netflix.
We’ll definitely check out that movie, and Gabi is far from being a girlie-girl as her obsessions center around Robots, Ghosts, Dinosaurs, and Monsters so she might find it enjoyable.