[MorrisTheCat]

Yeah, not unthinkable, more like sensible. We didn't just unplug our TV at home, we sold it altogether. No boob tube present at all.
We can get what little entertainment we need through all those alternate sources mentioned above and then some, If I need to sit my 16 m/o in front of something to keep him occupied for a few minutes while I get something done, I can turn to a favorite DVD or YouTube on my Mac. Plenty of children's programming present there, illegality of it notwithstanding.
I save about $50 a month by just having cable modem service, no cable TV.
There are only a rare couple of things I miss from not having cable TV, but I can live with it because of the savings on my bills (including electricity!)

[RamaFan]

Like the gentleman above I would be perfectly happy to disconnect my $70.00 a month cable connection (for which I only get basic expanded cable...no movie channels, no HD, and no program guide); but my wife watches those awful reality programs religiously. (Where would we be if we couldn't watch rich, famous people make fools of themselves?!)
A added benefit I would love to have is that I would probably get more things done, read more books, and get more exercise instead of wasting hours in front of the 'tube'.

[TeaEarleGreyHot]

I've not had a television set or reception (satellite, broadcast, cable, or otherwise) for years. I don't miss it at all; get my news from NYTimes.com, and NPR radio or podcast.
Life's a banquet, LIVE LIVE LIVE!

[Shawn_Levasseur]

I've recently ditched satellite, and am going with Netflix, online streaming and iTunes.
I'd like to get an antenna setup for over the air and use eyeTV to record OTA television, but my location is too far for a simple setup. I'm not in the middle of nowhere, just off to the side of everywhere. Nonetheless, I'm getting by okay.
Due to local blackout restrictions, live sports are out. But I like baseball as a radio sport better anyway, and the radio streaming is not subject to blackout.
Next football season, I'll probably forgo live streaming and watch on delay via NFL.com's service, and go to the sports bar for the Monday Night game (which I'd be doing anyway)
Sports are the one place where being outside North America is an advantage, as live streaming of U.S. major league sports is available without blackouts to the rest of the world.

[MiniMoe]

The big screen got sold a few years ago when we cancelled satellite, leaving us with a 9" analog TV. We decided not to buy a converter box for it so like MorrisTheCat, we no longer watch TV and our lives have become much more enriched without it. We do have an EyeTV Hybrid ATSC tuner for big news events, but the news is so depressing we seldom watch it.

[cv]

The author correctly points out that watching a rich variety of live sporting events is hard without cable or satellite. I 86'ed my cable company about a year ago and while ESPN360.com augments my HD OTA broadcast programming, I certainly do not get the same array of sports. Can I live with it? Yes. Would I appreciate a better selection of live online sports programming? You bet.

[fletc3her]

I'm seriously considering canceling cable now that BSG is over. SyFy, ugh.

[mattjlc]

I dropped cable at the beginning of 2008, and I haven't regretted it for a minute. Being totally uninterested in watching sports does help, I agree.

[ChrisLJ]

I just recently turned in my cable box and remote to Time Warner and downgraded to the 'standard' package.
Got rid of all the crap HBO and Cinemax channels I never watched and save $40 a month.
I'd like to get a digital converter and smart antennae and dump it all, but alas, I too have a wife who will only let me go so far. Maybe someday.

[Raymondo17]

I'm with Okipedro. Watching Hulu on a HiDef television is like waterskiing in your bathtub -- not much of a thrill there. When hi-def content is reliably streamed via services like Hulu or OVguide.com or TVshak.net, maybe it'd be worth the trouble. But as it is, it's unbearable to watch unless your DVR missed an episode of Survivor or something and you need to catch up.

[bjp1982]

I like the idea of getting rid of cable (Comcast sucks!!!), but where am I supposed to go for quick, reliable, and inexpensive internet service?
I had just a basic cable internet connection and no cable which cost $66 a month. I moved (within the same city) and because it was only $71 a month to have both cable and internet I decided that it was more worth while to just have both. I canceled Netflix to make up for the extra costs.

[nextgenlibrarian]

And what about buying a HD antenna and hooking that bad boy up to your TV? The antenna only costs like $80, and the set top converter for older TVs is almost free with the coupon from the government.
My wife and I have been monitoring what we watch on TV (the stuff we care about watching, not the stuff that we flip to when we're bored). All but a couple programs are on the major networks. When we pull the plug on our cable, we'll miss Food Network and Bravo (Top Chef and Project Runway are great shows), but that's about it.

[n4hhe]

I don't have HBO but do have one of the first 722 Dish DVR's. "America's Top 250", HD, and DVR rental is about $85/mo.

Speed in SD is badly compressed, AMA Supercross races are painful to watch, they can't get the dirt moving properly on the screen. Motorcycles are blobs of pixels. DirectTV is said to have Speed in HD.

Dish has HD channels that do not have SD versions. I find myself watching those more than expected. The Universal HD channel has had programs such as Star Trek Enterprise commercial free in HD. Contrast with SciFi's 6 minute commercial breaks ever 5 minutes. Or just as bad, letter boxed on an HD channel.

Thinking a lot about dropping Dish after 13 years in favor of DirectTV. Problem is that is not a clear cut choice. Appears I need to break out a spreadsheet and calculate the tradeoffs. And/or consider Netflix. Problem with Netflix is that all the pop-under ads I get are from Netflix, can't support a company which does that sort of thing.

[obeythefist]

There's one option you forgot to mention: Podcasts. You can get nightly news for all major networks plus a lot of original content that's not even available through cable via the podcasts section of the iTunes store.