My livelihood depends on people watching TV.

As I record just about everything I watch on TV these days I could just as easily watch it from DVDs but I like to watch a lot of football and I've never enjoyed watching it in a pub. What you don't get if you rely on box sets is the odd little low budget gem that isn't worth marketing. I've recently enjoyed "Genius" and "Never Seen Star Wars" (yes yes, I know they were both on the radio) and I can't see them transferring to DVD.

You forgot to mention how many bland , mundane and useless conversations are cut short when you reply " don't know mate I don't have a telly " . TV does have its role, however it could be argued that there cannot be a Cathy come home moment where society is already so fractured .

The only down point is the constant hassle from the TV licence bods .

The European Cup Final tonight could be one argument for TV.

I get the Radio Times, and the only shows I've circled next week are all on the radio. We are entering the Nothing On Telly season, its harbinger usually being the start of Big Brother.

Ask again in the autumn. Maybe something worth a damn will turn up by then. (Wouldn't bet your Wire Boxed Set on it though.)

… I've been grappling with non-possession of a TV, and the recent Word feature on the state of British TV was a contributory factor in the final decision to give it the old heave-ho (not out of our 3rd floor window, sadly). Not regretting it yet (although I must admit I'll miss the Apprentice tonight).

we swore we would never plonk them in front of the telly just to get an hour or two of peace and quiet. After we had kids, reality bit.

If we still had no children then I would agree with you. I honestly think I could live without it (although if I could just pay a tiny fraction of the licence fee to get only BBC4 that would be nice). Like Fraser in the other thread, I have a huge pile of unread books. If I didn't have a TV I think I would probably get through them a lot quicker. I know the option to actually turn off the TV is always there, but somehow that never seems to happen.

I would not have missed the hilarious spoof-Star-Trek-alike episode of CSI last night for the world. Just a shame that House is back in a few days on bloody Sky One. You know where you are with Five.

rather than just not watch stuff they don't like. I still don't understand why people have this massive reaction to it. Elsewhere I pointed out all the rubbish books that are printed but no one say's how much they hate reading nowadays. Watching stuff via the net or dvd is still watching tv.
Don't you end up with very narrow viewing if you only watch DVD's reviewed in music magazines and Broadsheet papers?
Like I say I do find the strong reaction very interesting.

I'm with Chris G, I don't really understand the idea of being Anti-TV just because there is a lot of rubbish on. Surely it is just a medium by which information and entertainment are presented, as are books, magazines, the radio, the internet... All of those have rubbish on them too, not everything is meant for everyone, you just pick and choose what you want.

anti-poodles!! and all other small dogs, can't stand them! I like tv though!!

is that we watch less TV. We used to watch any old rubbish that was on - now we just watch the rubbish we really want to - and much more importantly - when we want to.

Thus - not only does more mean less in this instance, it means a happier house - as often if the Light is watching "Lost" or some programme about one woman's desperate struggle against something desperately struggleworthy - I can sneak off and have intercourse with you lot

I watched television almost every single day for thirty-five years. Sometimes I watched it almost all day. I have watched a lot of television. And I read a lot about it too: as a fan, about its history, how it's made, what it means. Some of the most enjoyable, or thought-provoking, moments of my life have been down to television. In fact, I've even sought out some of the people responsible and thanked them. I am not anti-tv.

I moved house at Christmas. I had no tv and lots to do. You can learn a foreign language in the time it takes to move a bank account. I vowed not to get a tv until everything got done. Everyone who knows me gave it a fortnight. I was amazed at what happened next: I DID NOT MISS TV AT ALL. I think that's interesting. I had put an awful lot of time and effort into being a discriminating tv viewer over the previous twenty-odd years. It was a major part of my daily life. I never imagined that it would be so easy to live without it.

I still watch tv at friends' houses, of course. Watching the match live on tv has turned into an event again. I'm sure that my standard of living would be improved by having a stockpile of The Daily Show, Charlie Brooker, TV Burp and BBC4's foreign films to look forward to. It would be quite costly though. I don't want to organise my evenings around 8:30pm so I'd have to buy some kit - and a licence of course. They're good shows but they're not worth £400. I could keep spending and get The Colbert Report. How did the bigger channels miss that? You can buy a lot of box sets for that money. I could even watch the ones I've got.

I honestly believed that within six months I wouldn't have had a clue what people were talking about. There'd be some catchphrase or controversy or something. I glance at the front pages of the tabloids or listen to Radio 5 Live and I'm back in the loop. I'm not aware that I've missed anything unmissable on tv at all. (A lot of the examples of top-quality documentaries in this thread date from 2008 and earlier.)

I'm not an evangelist but I have mentioned my-life-without-television on two threads now. I think it's worth sharing. Why was it so easy to give up? There is a lot about tv I really dislike. If I worked in tv I would be interested. When the digital changeover happens there will be millions of people with tv sets that don't work anymore. They might race to the shops to get a Freeview box or a new set. Or they might not get round to it. And if they don't get round to it they might not miss tv at all.