I have never made it a secret that I use mostly cable and very few streaming services, but I have never made it clear which one I prefer or presented the case of cable here in print.

I am not against streaming services. I love being able to watch what I want, when I want, for as long as I want. 

However, I think that they are expensive, inconvenient when you need multiple services just to watch what you want, unreliable and, honestly, overrated.

I’ve just accepted that I still do things the old-fashioned way and this applies to how I watch TV. We still have cable boxes at my house, mixing this with the few streaming services we have (free, like Tubi and Pluto or the basic YouTube).

If you have never used cable, or it’s been a while, it works quite differently from streaming. You can choose between many live channels to watch immediately and these have commercials that you cannot skip. Ever.

The alternative is to pre-record what you want to watch. This is when you can actually fast-forward commercials and choose to save whatever you want to see for as long as you want (however, there is a storage capacity to how much you can save). 

That’s the simple breakdown, if you didn’t know. 

I will not advocate for cable over everything, but I will attest to the convenience of watching off a cable box.

I can be really indecisive and this can apply to TV choices as well. Cable really helps me narrow down the decision, since I can only choose pre-recorded shows or what is on live.

Pre-recorded shows are recorded off the live channels to save for later, which also means I don’t have the entire TV series readily available whenever I want. Also helpful to narrow down the episode I get to watch.

I love this option for movies because, unlike streaming, there are a plethora to choose from, and after it’s recorded, I never have to worry about it being removed, plus I get to skip over all the commercials every time I watch it.

You can select which TV series you want to record every time it’s played, on any channel or on one channel in particular. Don’t worry; they play the episodes in order. This is only a drawback if you dislike certain seasons of a show and have to wait it out until your favorite episodes circle back around.

There are so many movie channels to choose from, so if you find a movie you want to see (this also means you have to search out the movies and record them before they are live), record it and keep it until you’re sure you won’t want to watch it for a while; you don’t get to watch live Christmas movies in April, if that’s something you want to do.

On that note, I also enjoy that cable is seasonal. They show Easter movies in spring, summer favorites from June to August, the Christmas in July specials and from November to January, and everything in between. 

This also runs true for TV shows; if you want to watch a Christmas episode of a particular series, there’s no searching for it; it will be on live at some point.

Here lies my true love of cable; I love live TV.

I know there are streaming services that do play shows live, but, honestly, I have never found them very user-friendly. 

Cable has so many different channels to choose from and it’s simple to put everything in its category; reality, movies, old sitcoms, new sitcoms, old movies, sports and so on. 

I am completely aware that streaming does the same thing; they just have less to choose from and channels are difficult to switch between. 

For cable, you can just select the “last” button on the remote to switch between two live channels, or one recorded show and one live channel (convenient during commercial breaks). Looking ahead to see what’s on live later is simple, and if you are watching something you like, it’s easy to set up a recording to see it again later.

Especially during the holidays, live TV is my go-to. All the Christmas movies are on, so I can watch them in bits and pieces at different times, many times over.

And I never have to worry if my streaming service will carry a particular movie anymore. If it’s Christmas, it’s fair game.

Cable has many downsides, but streaming does, as well. I’m getting more and more used to watching on-demand, and sometime in my lifetime, I’m sure I will have no other option than to use streaming.

I will not die on the hill of cable, just like I will not die on the hill of Netflix, Hulu, Paramount + or anything else. I’ll live in the old-fashioned world just a little longer.