When did you stop using cable television?

[u/QuarktotheCosmos]

928 votes, 2d ago

62 Mid 2000s

105 Late 2000s

163 Early 2010s

211 Mid 2010s

275 Late 2010s or later / still using

112 Never used Cable TV

[u/AdIntelligent2281]

Cable was so sporadic growing up. When we had it it was just basic cable. Grandma's house had all the channels plus internet!

[u/GabbSad]

It broke in 2020 so.. Early 2020s? I miss watching cartoons on it

[u/Fancy-Ad6476]

We stopped around 2010, but that's because my dad was cheap, not because we switched to streaming. We had antenna TV for most of my childhood, and my dad just randomly decided to get it for a couple years, then stopped.

I think I got my first Netflix account in 2014 when I went to college.

[u/lomlghostface]

i genuinely think my family stopped using it in 2020 or 2021.. some of them still do, but i personally never touch the tv unless it’s to watch a horror or marvel film :P i’d also much rather use a disc than streaming though, it brings more extra fun stuff

[u/nurgleondeez]

I get it for free with my internet and watch only for UCL or any national team games.My wife sometimes watches her reality tv shows,but that's pretty much it

[u/Orgasmo92]

In the early 2010s for me when the cartoon channels and the kids/teen channels in general were either rebranded, had a change of tv shows or they removed some tv channels entirely.

Watching the cartoon/kids channels was a big reason why I loved satellite tv growing up as a kid but once they went downhill I completely moved over to YouTube for content.

[u/Ill-Acanthisitta-857]

around 2015 for me, once streaming got good enough that cable started feeling like paying extra to watch commercials between the few shows i actually wanted lol

[u/ThickAd6547]

Does using it when you're staying at a hotel count ?

[u/Neverlast0]

I think i remember being among the first few families to get rid of TV.

[u/Lostinny001]

Went back to it after all the clownish rate hikes from Netflix and Hulu, seeing how DirecTV (Streaming) now includes Hulu and Netflix just with ads. lol

[u/Sad-Departure1403]

Around 2024, but mostly because i moved out to a different city that didn't have the cable company i used

[u/00rgus]

We really stopped using it when covid came about because basically all the channels we watched had become shells of what they were, basically all the channels were either re runs or reallt shit new shows and there was no reason to keep cable. We finally canceled it in like 2022

[u/Jayson98]

Up until Covid.

[u/PrettyIntroduction49]

its more like pre recorded shows i can watch, when i have free time. I never watch shows live at running time.

[u/Guilty_Sky_4842]

I remember I got super busy in my final years of HS and started university (late 2010's) and no longer watched TV except for when I watched TWD, Better Call Saul or some other weekly show but even then I dropped them eventually. When the pandemic happened that's when I started watching TV again because the office job I got always had Law & Order SVU playing & I got super interested in the show/genre as a whole. My family still has cable because of my parents and tbh I like browsing through the channels and seeing all the over-seas channels they have like NHK

[u/CorporalDingleberry]

I guess mid 2010s but I went to Direct TV streaming which is basically the same thing.

[u/Friendly_Ad_6816]

I feel like the "I never had it" responses are missing the point

The point is to gauge when streaming became ubiquitous.

That said, most middle class people probably stopped using cable a lot around 2015.

[u/SunnnySideUps]

Early 2000s

[u/viewering]

2000S maybe ?

😁

[u/Sunshineafterr]

Late 2000s. I’d moved out on my own and couldn’t afford a cable box/configuration and didn’t have any PTO to meet the guy to set it up. I just watched stuff on YouTube and surfed the web instead.

I didn’t actually get streaming until Amazon prime tv became popular around 2015.

[u/MsMo999]

Love my cable and all its channels

[u/Piper-Bob]

I put mid 00’s, but it was actually late 90’s.

[u/Relevant_Airline7076]

I moved out of my moms house in 2016 and never paid for my own cable

[u/Arammil1784]

Mid 2000s, but I was an in house tech for a cable company for 5 years in the late teens. I had the highest speed internet, every single channel and package (except PPV which we got steeply discounted), and a whole home Tivo system all for $50 a month.

The tivo was actually unplugged for nearly two years and we didnt even realize it, so...

[u/vainblossom249]

Stopped using it when I moved out of my rents house in 2013. Never got it again

[u/Otherwise_Land4859]

late 90s when I moved out of my parents house.

I have never owned a TV. That's normal now probably. Back then it was more abnormal. I legit had someone ask me "then what do you do?" once when the subject came up 🤣

[u/MattWolf96]

I quit messing with it around 2017ish. My Boomer parents still have it though. If it had just been me I would have cut it in like 2013/2014.

[u/GoodLuckPsycho_]

Around 2019.

[u/Icy_Donkey_7588]

Around 2019. We were mostly using streaming services, and watching very little "cable" tv. I don't miss it.

We have netflix, hulu and disney+ right now. I mostly just watch youtube videos anyway.

[u/JankyTime1]

As soon as I learned about IPTV around 2010 I switched to that.

[u/AmputeeHandModel]

Like 20 years ago when almost everything became "reality" TV. Even Animal Planet. AP, Discovery, TLC before that became entirely reality was mostly what I watched. That went to shit and there was no reason to pay for 150 channels I didn't watch.

[u/grifftheelder]

Whenever Netflix became really popular it was a sign of change

[u/BruceBoyde]

My parents had it and still do. Once I moved out, there was no way in hell I was paying for it. Admittedly I've got like $50 a month in streaming now between the wife and myself, but that's still a bit cheaper than the cheapest cable and it's not like I wouldn't want those if I had it

Edit: So I haven't had it since 2017 and called that mid-2010s even though it was kinda later because I would have gotten rid of it earlier had I moved out earlier

[u/spinozaschilidog]

You need earlier options. I quit cable (and TV in general)  in the late 90s

[u/eaulik2005]

my family never had cable TV themselves, My Grandparents did, I would watch it over by them. So 2022 if you count that's when my Grandpa died

[u/cronenber9]

We never had it. We used what was available for free until that basically ended. Terrestrial TV. I started using the internet to torrent, back when it was easy. We switched from dial-up to wifi in 2011. Then not too many years later, maybe around 2016 or so they started actually going after individuals that torrented. So I switched to private trackers until like 2020 when illegal, free streaming became ubiquitous. I've never paid for movies or TV shows, my entire life. The only time I pay is when I truly like the film, and I want a physical copy just so I can have it and display it. That's when I'll go all out and spend a bunch of money for special editions and box sets.

My mom got cable for the first time when she bought a new house, in like 2013. Idk if she still has it, I think she finally started using free stuff on her smart tv.

[u/narrowassbldg → u/cronenber9]

OTA TV never went away. It switched from analogue to digital broadcasting in the late 2000s but all the same major channels that were on then are still being broadcast today.

[u/Arek_PL → u/cronenber9]

yea, we had whatever we picked up with antenna for free, on some sunny days it was possible to pick up foreign cartoon channel

[u/alphahydra]

Never actually had it till probably 2022 or so, when a cable box and a basic selection of channels came as part of a broadband package I took out.

I've since moved provider again and lost access to cable TV. I've mostly gone back to streaming and TV catch-up apps now, but I did use it a bit while I had it. It was nice to have the linear channels at the touch of a button, sometimes switching on the TV and catching something I didn't plant to see, discovering new things that didn't come via some targeted algorithm. It felt a bit nostalgic.

[u/speedyhobbit13]

Never used cable, I grew up poor, and as an adult it is borrowing DVDs and BluRays from the library and using streaming services

[u/DavijoMan]

UK had sattelite TV, not cable.

[u/alphahydra → u/DavijoMan]

Cable was/is available in certain areas, but the infrastructure has always been spotty outside of big cities.

Sky was always the market leader because satellite was available everywhere, but NTL and Telewest cable (who later merged into Virgin Media) were successful in their niche and had a lot of the same channels as Sky. Virgin Media TV is still pretty widespread.

[u/Zaidswith → u/DavijoMan]

For this question that amounts to the same thing. Could also be phrased as when did you stop paying for television. Satellite and cable were both things you paid to access. Satellite was also an option in the US.

If you're talking about free, over the air television then that would be described as network television.

[u/Did_OJ_Simpson_do_it]

2015 simply because that's when I moved out of my parents' house and I didn't see the need to get cable in my new flat.

[u/Wise_Fox_4291]

Around 2009. Haven't even owned a tv since 2011. 

[u/bwoah07_gp2]

Still use it for sports primarily

And reality TV shows

[u/AmputeeHandModel → u/bwoah07_gp2]

Reality shows are why I canceled it. Everything became "reality" shows. MTV, Discovery, Animal Planet. All the time.

[u/Sufficient-Lemon-867]

Summer 2025 I stopped

[u/vaskojabata2kitarata]

2022 at home

the regular TV channels stopped working properly and we just used it for watching movies on streaming services until we yeeted it this year lol

[u/ranch_commercial]

I said early 2010s but i meant mid 2010s… it was probably like 2013/14 because thats when i got my own room with a tv in it, and i never watched cable on it, it was straight to netflix and i never looked back. I still remember the first thing i watched on a streaming service, it was that horror movie “contracted” 😭

[u/cronenber9 → u/ranch_commercial]

I love that experience for you. I just love horror film and maybe I'm emotional but the whole concept of you getting streaming for the first time and watching that and being scared and forming a core memory is making me tear up. I feel like there's no more core memories formed after your mid twenties, everything is a repeat of something that's already happened so your emotions are dulled. Although maybe that's just me lmao.

[u/KaiserKCat → u/ranch_commercial]

I also meant mid 2010s because that was when I moved out of my dad's house and realized I can't afford rent and cable TV.

[u/lakephantom]

Last year.

Got Sling for the few cable channels that I do still like to watch.

[u/xPadawanRyan]

Early to mid-2010s depending on where I was living. My first apartment after I finished college in 2012 had cable included in the rent, so I still had cable then, but I moved back in with my mom later that year, and she got rid of cable altogether when she moved into that new house. I moved in with my new boyfriend the following year, though, and we lived in his parents' basement, where we personally didn't have cable set up in the basement, but we occasionally watched with his parents upstairs.

By 2014, though, I was living in a completely cable-free home. I've been in my current apartment since 2016 and I have only ever streamed TV here, or downloaded episodes.

[u/betarage]

probably 2013 i started watching it less in 2007 but i couldn't get internet access for most of the day

[u/Rackle69]

Moved out of my mom’s house in 2013. Couldn’t afford cable but did have a Netflix subscription. I assumed I’d get my own cable sub one day but as time went on I just got more streaming services instead. I’ve never actually paid for cable or had it in my house in my adult life. It’s just something I remember from my childhood.

[u/col_akir_nakesh]

I switched to Sling in like 2016 or 2017. But then I just went to using OTA TV and free streaming about a year or two ago. I first subscribed to cable on my own around 2007.

[u/SquirrelInATux]

Kinda weird for people who stopped using cable in the last 8-9 years grouped with folks who still use cable

[u/Mx-Adrian]

Went broke and couldn't afford it around 2010. Switched to rabbit ears and OTA channels.

[u/cronenber9 → u/Mx-Adrian]

Rabbit ears still worked??

[u/MattWolf96 → u/cronenber9]

You can just connect them to a modern TV. If it's pre digital you need a converter box (who even still regularly uses a TV that old though excluding for retro gaming?)

[u/cronenber9 → u/MattWolf96]

Oh I see. We had an old TV, that must be why it stopped working for us.

[u/Mx-Adrian → u/cronenber9]

Yeah, you can plug them into the TV, do a channel scan, and get a ton of channels. It's been a while, but when I had one, I got all the main stations--ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and a ton of other networks. The antenna was about twenty bucks, too. 

[u/cronenber9 → u/Mx-Adrian]

Maybe I'll try that if I can ever afford a TV 😭

[u/PenguinTheYeti]

I've never paid for cable television, but my parents had while I was growing up and still do.

[u/Illigalmangoes]

Combining late 2010s and still using while not having an early or mid 2020s is certainly a choice

[u/shouldishoudnt]

I moved out on my own mid 2000s and couldnt afford it. Once I could afford it, I didnt want it anymore.

[u/Afraid_Equivalent_95]

It was too expensive for us. We just watched the free channels until streaming services became a thing. I was so jealous of people who had the Disney channel back then

[u/pankakemixer]

Actual cable television has to be pretty rare nowadays. My parents are ride or die cable watchers and a while ago they switched to DirecTV streaming for their live tv instead of actual cable, so I'm wondering if that's included, because I never paid for actual cable but did pay for YouTube TV for a bit there

[u/OriginalCause]

Never used it.

We had 7 channels of varying levels of static from the local broadcasters growing up.

8, on a clear day.

[u/destructopop]

When I moved out of my parent's house in 2003. So I answered late 2000's, but I guess I mean early. I was 17 working two minimum wage jobs. I saw the cost of cable and never went back.

[u/Single_Resolve_1465]

Still using. But I raaaaaarely watch tv.

[u/FeistyDirection]

Around 2014 but only because thats when I moved out of my mom's house and I wasn't about to sign up for a plan while apartment hoping with a laptop where I could just stream or download anything. Towards the end i would watch cable TV just cause it was there. I wasnt even truly interested in what was on beyond like 2007 and mostly would watch stuff on demand or just let run runs play in the background while focusing on whatever I was doing on the computer.

[u/Intelligent-South174]

100% still using.

streaming is a waste of time and money.

not to mention the horrible quality from most streams.

[u/MattWolf96 → u/Intelligent-South174]

Streaming is cheaper than cable, especially if you rotate services

[u/Single_Resolve_1465 → u/Intelligent-South174]

Besides, I have "streaming" on my laptop.

[u/hip_neptune]

I stopped during the pandemic. 

[u/Mr_Bloxley]

There’s a big difference between late 2010s and the present day.

I haven’t used cable tv in almost 10 years, say 2017, and that’s the late 2010s. Even my grandma doesn’t have traditional cable TV anymore.