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Over half of the 1500 people surveyed have Sky for a TV service, 29 per cent use UPC and 9 per cent use Saorview.
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Though mobile phones are the most commonly used telecommunications services at 97 per cent, the telly box still appears to be popular in Irish households.
However with the increase in the use of streaming websites and services like Netflix, many people are turning away from their televisions and watching their favourite shows and movies on computers.
So we want to know: Could you live without your TV?
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polling journal.ie users is very likely to give a skewed result since we are probably more technology friendly than perhaps older generations who are more dependant on tv for their entertainment.
I got rid of my TV from my flat because I couldn’t afford the TV license and the free-view. For about 2 weeks I had withdrawal symptoms but rediscovered the joy of reading. For years I was an avid reader but tailed off to watch TV because it was so convenient. Now I am reading so much that I forget about whats on the box. I still enjoy going home to my parents and catching up on whats on Sky and enjoy the brief escapism but I still think that there is nothing better than reading a good book and using your imagination to create the car chases. the laughter, the suspense and the adventure.
A better question would be to ask could people live without TV Programmes. as many here said they watch TV online. These shows are produced by TV companies therefore to say you don’t watch TV is disingenuous
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Jon I didn’t say that I don’t watch TV, it’s just that I don’t watch so much of it. I do enjoy watching various programs and like to keep up with the news and such like. My point is that for years neglected reading and learning for myself because it was so much easier to sit down and get someone else to do the work for me. I still like to go home and watch the box with a range of viewing from the Discovery Channel to Family Guy! TV does serve a very good purpose in that it helps people to relax after a hard days work or inform them about what is going on around them. Now that I have got rid of my TV in the flat I now have time to go through the backlog of reading that I have being saying for years that “I must read that some time”.
Hi Brian, Sorry that post was not supposed to a direct reply to you but a comment of it’s own (1st time posting a comment). Your post is quite clear, my reference was in general to people who watch tv online but believe there is somehow a difference than watching a normal tv.
I’m the same but if I do happen to watch a TV show I’m reminded of the frequency and absurdity of the bloody adverts! Which only reinforces my opinion that TV is crap.
Only thing worth watching on live t.v is football or boxing . All films and t.v program s are online ad free. P.s r.t.e is an abomination of a channel . They will have some documentary on soon enough i becth you trying to say were actually winners given away all our oil. Propaganda t.v
No way, I love TV especially RTE & it’s wonderful cutting edge shows, my only complaint is they refuse to bring back ‘mart to market’ which was compulsive viewing & class TV.
Ah yes..memories of black&white film clips of men in brown work coats ,flat caps and wellies beating the ar~es of cows in rings around the country.Now ,thats REAL RTE entertainment!
In fairness, Winning Streak is top quality. They say Marty Whelan takes a yoke before every show, which explains why he talks for minutes without breathing and makes everyone feel painfully uncomfortable.
I watch Netflix now more often than regular tv, but I have my laptop connected to the TV with a HDMI cable….so while I may not be tuning into regular tv, I still need the actual television as a medium to watch it on!
Iv a 500K external hard drive plugged directly into my 42inch tv, hundreds of movies n tv shows at my finger tips! Use HDMI for streaming Skysports off skygo on my lappy! Love technology
However what I would miss most is the look of total blankness on every Irish politicians face when they are being interviewed. You just know that some civil servant or PR consultant has told them what to answer.
Some day future generations will look back on scheduled programming and think it’s absurd (I already do). T.v. stations as we know them are going the way of the dodo as younger generations replace the old. Years ago I used to think having a big t.v. was important but a small laptop screen is my preferred option these days.
My tv got smashed during a burglary back in November, I thought my life was gonna end; it took nearly 6 month for the insurance money to come through. Cancelled my sky etc in the mean time. Got my new tv 3 weeks ago and I think I’ve switched on about twice since getting it. I don’t miss any of the crap I used to watch. Streaming stuff is only brilliant
We need one decent channel. There’s no need for them to repeat the English soaps and they can cancel all that cack like the lyrics board and the celebrity circle jerks. Max salary of 150k.
Got rid of my tv almost 12 months ago. Surviving without it no problem. No desire to get another. See modern programming for the sham it is. There is life after the hypnotic glow box is gone.
I’m with those who use their TV as a conduit for online streaming. Very rarely watch “live” TV anymore.
A hint by the way- check out mediahint.com It’s a free VPN which you download to your Internet browser (chrome especially) and you can watch the US Netflix and BBC iplayer. I stream it to me telly using Apple TV. Awesome.
Justin – you can build yourself an XBMC media centre for under €100. XBMC has a beautiful interface, plays just about everything, gives you rich displays of all your local media and there are a load pf plug-ins that allow stream movies, live TV etc, (mainly pirated). I built mine on a Raspberry PI. Also has Airplay and unpn.
TV is the number 1 place to watch sport.
In regards to TV shows it’s just so much more convenient to watch series whenever and wherever you feel like it.
My large telly isn’t connected to the aerial or any form of receiver. I only have it so I don’t have to watch films or play fallout on a small laptop screen.
I could happily live without sky as most shows are online but as a gamer I need the actual television set. Plus when I watch a show online I normally connect the laptop to the telly and watch that way.
I use the tv because the xbox is connected to it, and thats only a glorified DVD player really. Saorview is all I have and poveRTE is still rubbish in HD. Once the fixed line broadband is installed the above will be donated to a club or something like that and I’ll view everything online.
I have a tv with no channels, does that count? Just use it for DVDs and gaming! The channels are crap, hundreds of them and not a single thing to watch!
Live without a tv – most definitely….
Live without my stable 30mb wireless broadband and my tablet – not a bloody hope would I last 5 minutes!
Remeber losing my connection for 2 hours one afternoon. It felt like the world was ending and I was going to be the last to know.
It never dawned on me to check the news on the telly.
It was a very scary and confusing time in my life!
Streaming won’t work for us as the broadband connections in our area are not great. Our internet service constantly fails. Only for that we would probably get rid of the TV.
I wouldn’t totally agree with the last sentence. I think more and more people are turning away from their computer screens and figuring out how to hook up their Internet content to their TVs – whether that’s HTPC’s, streaming boxes like Apple TV etc or just connecting their laptops. Broadcast TV as we know it is alive and kicking it’s just that we are not all watching according to their schedule and they no longer have exclusivity on our screens.
Don’t look at much now thanks to the power of the Internet I look at most of my telly stuff on the laptop I can a lot more shows tht I like to at instead of the sh1t that rte shows
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