And if so, what do you watch? If not, what are you watching? Is it Netflix? Do you just skip TV altogether?
In my house regular terrestrial TV still gets a run out. Mainly because ABC Kids is really great and I’ve got a two-year-old. Also: my wife and I sometimes watch The Bachelorette. Secret shame.
Mostly though, our television is used for Netflix or video games. We are following that trend of watching less and less ‘regular’ TV.
What are your watching habits?
Comments
73 responses to “Off Topic: Do You Still Watch TV?”
I watch the news and the football (during football season).
Other than that, I’ll occasionally turn it on to see what’s on if I’m feeling lazy and just want to slob around and not think about what to watch. I’ll probably watch season 2 of Fargo when that starts on SBS soon.
Other than that, it’s really just Netflix all the way.
Fargo S1 was so good. Can’t wait.
Also, the cast for this season looks insane. Kirsten Dunst, Ted Danson, Brad Garrett. Wow
Gonna be hard to top Billy Bob from season 1, though.
He was good, but he was given serious red meat to chew. I thought the standout was Alison Tolman. Such a good performance
I used to do that all the time, but about ten years ago I just stopped. I think looking back I replaced channel surfing with the internet and DVDs. Now I don’t even think about turning on the TV unless it’s to load up some digital content or games. The thought of seeing what’s on TV never crosses my mind when I’m bored.
It doesn’t help that they don’t produce TV I’m interested in at a fast enough pace to keep up with the way I consume it. When I was young Saturday and Sunday were a bit of a wasteland but the rest had something I’d watch going on at most hours. Now I’d be lucky to find four shows a week and they’d no doubt be separated by sixteen hours of low budget kitchen/home renovation game shows. Netflix runs a little dry on fresh content but at least there are a lot of repeats and it’s all on demand.
Not by choice for over a decade now. But I will watch it with my wife or son.
It’s not likely I’d complain while visiting someone either.
If I could afford the spare cash (give up video games???!!!) I’d probably get Netflix.
Does Foxtel count? I watch AFL during the season. That’s about it. I also series link programs (i.e. The Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black) to watch at my convenience. The only show “currently” airing that I have series linked is Last Week Tonight. Everything else is waiting for seasons to start.
Nope, avoid watching TV at home.
I work on TV shows during the day and cant stand AD’s!
Its DVD’s or Video games for me…. NetFlix once internet situation improves.
I haven’t watched National TV in years, I get all my TV from Netflix or Torrents.
Netflix and the occassional questionably acquired show.
I do have a keen interest in alot of new TV shows every season.
Walking Dead new season just started so am watching that. Also watching the new Muppets show, catching up on Mr Robot, Bob’s Burgers, Review with Forrest Macneil, and a bunch of others as well.
And of course, the final season of Downton Abbey. 🙂
Yep. Netflix, Free-To-Air. I still watch it if there is something good on.
Nope!
I don’t know how people still watch it.
If it wasn’t for my wife and son I would hardly ever watch TV. I think games are just a bazillion times better entertainment. Bring on Fallout 4!
+1
I don’t think there’s anything on TV beside sport and the occasional series on ABC that would get me to switch on. My wife watches a lot more TV than I do, so we’re often channel surfing together; other than those occasions though, it’s very rare that I can’t find a game I’d prefer to be playing.
Same here…the only times I actually watch TV these days are when a sport is on that I want to watch, usually NRL (I’ve stopped watching the F1 on free to air and prefer to stream it now). Aside from that I do watch Netflix but that’s not really “TV”. If it wasn’t for my daughter watching ABC Kids the TV would probably barely come on at all until I got home and started playing games.
That seems to be the running theme here. People who know how to plug a XBOX in don’t watch free to air anymore, unless they live with someone who does.
US Netflix and torrents for things that aren’t on Netflix. I’ll have ABC news 24 on for background noise at times.
When I first moved in to my new place it took a week and a half to get the Internet set up. Man. Free to air tv is just the worst.
Yeah i do, Just got foxtel ready for basketball season and to watch the new series of flash. I would stream a lot more if i had a working internet connection into my home.
It’s just not worth the hassle. For whatever reason, getting a working antenna connected to our TV has taken a fair bit of effort at the last few houses we lived at. We did not make that effort.
After all, the only thing I really want to watch on TV is the footy. I’m a Brisbane Lions supporter. I do not live in Queensland. The footy I want to watch is never broadcast on TV and I’m not shelling out for Foxtel just for that. Now that the season is (thankfully) over, it’s a moot point anyhow.
So Netflix does the trick nicely. Netflix, Youtube, Twitch and the occasional other service. I get what I want, when I want and pay a reasonable price for it. Seems like a no brainer.
Aside from when Foxtel is playing in the background when I visit my parents, I haven’t watched TV or cable in over 10 years. That includes Netflix as well. All my shows are online.
Youtube pretty much fills the TV shaped void for me so no, I don’t really watch TV. I’ll watch it if I’m a hotel and there’s nothing else to do but if I have access to an internet connection I’ll almost certainly watch Youtube or browse the internet instead. There’s probably one or two TV shows I might stop to watch, and maybe if there’s an interesting movie on, but that’s about it.
I had Foxtel for ages, but it was always just background noise, I never actually watched it. Always felt weird in a silent living room.
I was actually thinking about this the other day, I never watch TV anymore, not by choice at least. For me, I just cant’ stand adverts, they drive me nuts. The only time I watch it is if I’m with the missus and she wants to watch the voice or some other show of that nature, but otherwise I’ll only ever turn it on if I’m working on the laptop and want some background noise.
Aside from a couple of shows that I watch whenever they’re running, nope. I do pay for Netflix for the occasional movie, tho.
I haven’t watched FTA TV regularly in 8 years. Australian TV sucks and the only things worth watching are on ABC (Gruen, Chaser) which I watch on iview.
I don’t have a digital aerial, so I haven’t watched traditional tv in a long time. For a couple years, I made do with FTA streaming services, which are mostly abysmal on my crappy net. I recently jumped on the Netflix bandwagon with better internet, and I am loving it.
I should point out that I could get an aerial. When I visit mates who have tv though, I’m struck by one overwhelming thought.
I don’t miss it. At all.
Just felt the need to point out: there’s no such thing as a digital antenna. As long as you have an antenna for the right frequency band, you’ll pick up whatever is broadcast there, and it’s up to your receiver (TV) to decode. When the digital switch-over happened a bunch of services switched frequencies to different bands, so that might be why your old antenna doesn’t work. Calling something a ‘digital’ antenna is just marketing malarkey though.
Well, I don’t have a working antenna then. Result was the same. I had tv, now I don’t, and I don’t miss it.
Thanks for the info, though.
We still watch a lot of TV shows, however I became so disgusted at the continuation of low quality SD transmissions that I moved to get them elsewhere. A 700MB-1GB MKV file contains the show is much better quality that I get the shakes anytime I see SD TV now. Netflix tops it off, and maybe Stan now that they have a PlayStation App.
We built a new house and haven’t installed an antenna yet, the points are there, just not the antenna in or on the roof.
We have fiber and quota free Netflix (and xbox) though. We use Netflix and Youtube everyday and ABC iView a couple of times a week. We watch Good Game the day after it airs, when they upload it to Youtube and we can watch it in 720p (at least).
If we haven’t installed an antenna by the time the next AFL season starts (and we’re in no rush, we haven’t watched FTA tv except AFL for years), I’ll sign up for the AFL live streaming thing. I think I read somewhere they were streaming in 1080p next year so that will do for me.
Other than the AFL stuff, you just perfectly described my viewing habits with amazing accuracy.
Got rid of Foxtel several years ago and stopped watching free-to-air at the same time since we get horrible reception and TV is basically unwatchable without cable.
We kept up to date on a few particularly good/popular shows and movies via iTunes/Apple TV, buying on DVD/blu-ray and other less legitimate means, but with the arrival of Stan and Netflix, I have significantly ramped up my viewing again, and I’m 100% legit now. Everything I watch is streamed online – either Stan, Netflix, or YouTube. I watch a fair bit but the online format means I basically binge. I’m catching up on old shows I missed, enjoying whatever movies I happen to have an interest in and any newer shows/seasons I usually let get a few episodes ahead before I jump in. I’m also watching more documentaries than I used to, which either speaks to availability, the quality of the documentaries, or the fact I’m getting old.
I only watch sport and ABC News 24.
The only time we watch broadcast TV is for the news (ABC 24) and when the Wallabies are playing. All other TV watching is Netflix or torrents. No ads, and you can choose what you want to watch and when.
I don’t watch much free to air TV live these days. I still watch things from ABC, but usually via iView (it beats remembering to record things, even if it does have reduced picture quality).
Looking forward to seeing The Ex-PM this week (Shaun Micallef’s new show).
Sometimes I watch ABC (news, Q&A or whatever), everything else is utter trash. I imagine the only people still watching Australian Free to Air television are oldies or clueless muppets.
RIP TV in peperonis.
More now than I have in years. Mostly because once we’ve finally got the baby to sleep I’ll put something on while I do the house work.
I really like ‘Utopia’ on ABC. We also watched ‘Legends’ for no other reason than Sean Bean.
Giro and Le Tour when its on SBS.
Rest of the time, its Netflix or whatever happens to be on the TV show/Movie HDD.
At the moment, working through the original Power Rangers series, alongside Stargate Atlantis.
Yeah we do.
FTA during footy season.
We also have foxtel. Enjoy watching a movie now and again.
Mostly we watch more lifestyle based stuff though. Like Grand Designs, Village Vets, River Cottage Australia, stuff like that.
Also the wife enjoys the British reality shows like Great British Bake Off, and the Great Sewing Bee. It’s fascinating to see the British style of reality TV vs American. The Brits are always trying to help each other out and the shows don’t have stupid stunts to try and build “drama”.
I’ll throw a doco on as well occasionally. There are the occasionally good one’s among the rubbish.
My more regular TV series watching (Arrow, Flash, Blacklist etc) happens on the train. These are obtained on the high seas.
Yes, way less than I used to though.
A bit of Today show in the morning before the kids get up and watch ABC3,
Nine News or The Project on while we’re having dinner (makes for good dinner table discussion)
ACA if I want to laugh at bogans!
Occasionally there’ll be a show I watch religiously like Mad as Hell or that Mr T YouTube fails clip show but mostly I might watch something if it’s on before switching over to games.
I watch more YouTube on TV than Netflix through the xbone (or 360 in the kids lounge room)
I used to be that obsessed with TV I maintained a blog on the subject now I don’t even know when stuff is on (case in point apparently the Heroes reboot came out a few weeks back – I had no idea!)
I cant even remember the last time I watched regular TV.
Torrents and Netflix. Thats it.
My kids never watch TV either. My son watches YouTube and my daughter watches YouTube and Netflix.
It has literally been years since Ive watched commercial TV. On the odd occasion I have tried Ive been appalled at the purely garbage content and the amount of ads.
The only show the kids want to watch on TV is Family Feud, the other 99.99% of their viewing time is on the iPad (mainly YouTube, and Netflix).
We still watch a bit a FTA TV, but with 2 TiVo’s we don’t watch much live. Most nights are now spent streaming from Netflix/Stan.
My TV exists solely for games, DVD/Blu-Ray, or streaming stuff I’ve downloaded using Universal Media Server. Where I live, the internet is too crap for reliable HD streaming, so I’m not willing to pay for Netflix or anything like that. There’s also not a whole lot I want to watch anyway, besides Rick and Morty or The League.
I watch a lot of tv on my big screen television.
But i never watch shows or movies on broadcast channels.
I mainly use on demand streaming services and blu-rays.
Only time i watch a broadcast channel is for live sport (AFL, V8SC, F1). It makes me cry everytime i see broadcast channels, especially sport, in SD. my poor, poor eyes.
Haven’t watched fta TV since I moved out of home.
Sorta, but not really. Mum’s mostly in control of the TV these days, I’m just sitting here at the computer and vaguely listening to whatever happens to be going on over there. Most of the shows I was interested in got shoved around the place in scheduling then shifted to the secondary channels, then they started playing old episodes that weren’t marked as repeats so it became too much of a bother to keep up with them and I lost track. Pretty much gave up.
I’ve never really gone the streaming route though, we don’t have Netflix or whatever here. I’m too busy using my computer for other things to stop and watch something instead.
I like watching Family Feud
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Mostly just Netflix.
Case in point – finished watching supernatural season one last night. That’s literally a decade old and not the kind of thing the old broadcast means would deliver now, nor would I go and *buy* a TV series that I’ll watch once and not know if I’ll like it at the time of purchase. But that Netflix catalogue just works.
When I get time, I watch a few episodes of something. That’s the important distinction – it slots in to my spare time, I don’t plan my time around watching something on TV.
Now, on the other hand, I’ve also watched the first 3 episodes of the new Doctor Who on iView in the weeks they aired. Wife didn’t feel like it at the time.
On the weekend just gone, she did. So I open iView to play catch up and get us both ready for the new ones, but only episode 2 and 3 were there. So much for that. Looks like we’re just going to be abandoning that show until the full season shows up on Netflix some time next year.
I have been watching a lot of Netflix since I got it, I basically don’t watch Free-to-air TV at all (Good game on ABC2 being about it), and I have Foxtel which I don’t watch anywhere near enough of. It costs me $80p.m and all my wife and I watch is Sport (AFL and 4xMotorsport championships), Walking dead, Game of Thrones and Ballers. Doesn’t seem like good value for $80 :/
I don’t have an antenna. I have not had one for over 5 years. Netflix FTW
Incredibly rarely. The only things I watch are Dr. Who (When it’s on since iView only has it after it shows) and the occasional movie. Other than that I just watch streamed or disc based content.
I don’t watch any free to air, have FOX but am going to get rid of it now AFL season has finished.
I watch a lot of sports but do it through the net with gamepasses for NFL, NBA, NHL & EPL.
TV shows I watch I do through Netflix & torrents.
stopped watching tv couple years ago. all the shitty reality shows with z-grade celebrity wannabes turned me off.
Constantly have ABCNews24 on if I’m bored, or have been under a rock for like a week and need to play some catch up. Didn’t see Malcolm Turnbull speak as PM for at least a fortnight after he became PM.
Whats this TV you talking about and what does it have to do with a picture of a monitor? : ) kind of stopped watching TV about a decade ago when Reality TV and writer strikes ruined good scripted series. Youtube. streams or downloads now.
So my girlfriend and I are about to sign up to Foxtel, primarily so we can watch free to air TV (news, mostly). We live in a rental, and in NSW the responsibility for television rests solely with tenants. We had an aerial technician tell us that the antenna on the house is roughly 40 years old and won’t pick up signal, and the owner won’t fork out $600 for a new aerial. Rather than paying for it for him, we’ll spend less money getting Foxtel, which we can take with us if/when we move.
Other than that, we watch a fair amount of Netflix. I got a 6 month subscription for free with my phone plan, but I think we’ll be switching to Stan once that runs out as we’ve watched most of the stuff we want to from the netflix library.
I watch Netflix using a TV does that count as watching TV?
Never watch it regular tv or netflix unless friends insist I just play games and watch Youtube
I occasionally watch ABC & SBS. But the other guys can FTFO.
I don’t like ads. I don’t like sport. So FTA TV and Foxtel have very little to offer me.
I use Netflix and Hulu Plus (the premium almost ad-free option) and I’m happy with that.
Never watch TV these days. Especially so with Netflix, but before that I just gamed or downloaded movies/tv shows. I don;t think I’ve properly sat down and watched TV regularly for over 6 years.
I don’t watch TV for 3 reasons:
1) Ads all the goddam time
2) I can’t watch what I want when I want;it is just inconvenient to watch something at a preset time, with no option to pause/rewind if I need
3) nearly everything on FTA tv sucks, and for the rare show that is decent, see points 1 and 2.
TV is for netflix, video games and sometimes put on a dvd/Blu-ray.
The only time I watch TV is the occasional sporting match, that’s it.
Probably watch netflix 95% of the time major reason being i can watch what i want and when i want to watch it and then fta if i want to watch the news or sporting event.
Never watch FTA, can’t stand it. Real bottom of the barrel stuff and the contempt Aussie viewers are treated with by TV bigwigs offends me.
Netflix all the way, via Getflix, with it’s easy to use app that allows you to change regions at the press of a button. US Netflix doesn’t have Jarhead but Switzerland does!
Hulu is OK for Brooklyn Nine Nine and Fawlty Towers and I find other shows like Mr Robot somewhere on the line.
Only have basic basic Foxtel for Premier League / A-League but that will go once the real fibre optic cable NBN arrives in 2030. *cough*
I watch mostly SBS/weekend movies and Red Dwarf marathons on Saturdays if I’m not too tired, but otherwise my tiny TV is busy being a second monitor or gaming display. A lot of what’s on FTA these days just doesn’t hold my interest.
Sometimes I chuck it on when i’m eating dinner, usually The Simpsons or Futurama is on 11 or South Park is on SBS. Other than that I occasionally watch the motorsport, Landline & Gardening Australia. I’m fun.
But I usually get the shows I watch from torrents, Netflix or physical media. I really can’t stand watching a show when there’s ad breaks, I find them pointless and make me want to turn the TV off.
Haven’t watched TV in years. I absolutely refuse to watch any form of advertising if it isn’t required (EG I’ll turn up to the cinemas just before the movie starts because seats are allocated these days anyway). Main reason, is that which a lot of people will find true, content in Australia is RIDICULOUSLY lagging behind the US. EG some channel in Aus claiming they are “fast tracking” Quantico, whatever fast tracking means, and is meant to start this week I think? Whereas I’ve just watched episode 3 already. I refuse to sign up to streaming services at the moment as well as for EG Netflix only has Season 1 of Gotham, and I’ve just watched episode 4 of season 2. Put simply, f*@k TV and screw any backwards thinking and regressive studio who thinks the rest of the world should fall in behind their ridiculous release models. I understand there are rights and deals to be made about who can screen it and whatnot, however there is absolutely NO excuse in a digital and global economy whereby release dates cannot be the same world-wide. I’ll keep downloading shit until something is standardized and the industries decide to meet peoples demands. We’re willing to pay for it to be available immediately, just the studios aren’t prepared to provide that, so screw them. I’ll continue to pay for my Google Play subscription because there is value in that.
I stopped watching TV 10 years ago. Switched to torrents on the same basis I don’t turn on the radio if I want to hear music, I play the playlist I want. Australian programming being crap didn’t hurt, but they seem to be up to speed now on a quick turnaround buying decent foreign content.
Watch a bit of ABC, live or playing catch-up on iView. About the same time on Netflix. Nowhere near as much TV as I used to watch though, maybe an hour or so a night, a bit more on weekends. Mostly it’s dvds if the TV’s on … more like background noise than watching though.
Nope Plugged the set top box in for Bathurst because I couldn’t find a decent live stream and found the coverage to be absolutely shocking. Crappy sound cutting in and out every 20 seconds (I attributed this to bad reception but a number of people I spoke with said the same of the audio dropouts), really piss poor standard definition, and what felt like more ad time then racing time whenever I flicked back to the channel.
Never again.
What is with the really poor video quality from FTA?
TVs have gone to 1080P, and now 4K and the TV networks transmit in incredibly over-compressed SD signals? Honestly?
I haven’t had FTA TV since 2001, when I do see it, it is at other people’s houses, and the quality of the image is horrendous.