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Vacation Robo-Post: Your Recession Media Budget

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | December 24, 2008 | +

There are a couple schools of thought about entertainment spending and recessions. One is that, when there’s so much dire news in the world, home video is a relatively cheap and welcome escape. Another is that, if you lose your job and are worried about the same, the first thing you want to escape is that monster cable bill. Anecdotally, I know of more people lately who have cut their cable and started relying on Netflix and online video to save money.

Has the recession changed your spending habits? If so, how? If not—what would go, and in what order, if you suddenly had to cut back? Movie tickets? Music? Cable? Or do you ditch nonessentials first, like food for the kids and medical care?

Related Topics: robo-james, Uncategorized

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  • timbobloggins

    I have definitely noticed a decline in my media budget. Typically I’ve found myself at a movie theater every week with my girlfriend until recently.

    Another loss I have recently suffered is my Comcast budget…unfortunately I have had to cut back on my spending significantly, I’ve lost all of my movie channels and almost gave up my BBC America. I’ve recently determind I can’t really survive without the BBC America though, so I kept it. Sad times are ahead and I don’t know where I am going to get my True Blood now that HBO is off the menu…

  • Ashman

    It depends on a number of individual variables I imagine. For me, the television remains first and foremost as device that allows me to follow a plethora of professional sporting franchises. To follow a few of my obsessions (English Premiere League soccer) I require certain packages from Direct Tv. This means that I will continue to have Direct Tv and a certain amount of fluff from now until forever. I could, however, see scaling back on some of the channels I watch less frequently, which includes HBO/Showtime and other “pay” cable channels if I started to feel some serious economic strain.
    .
    If I wasn’t a fan of sports (which is one of the forms of entertainment that loses a considerable luster when it is not viewed live) than I could easily see myself cutting down to basic or even just network if the math demanded it. I would simply wait and order seasons on Blu-ray (or DVD if there was something older I wanted not yet on Blu-ray). I don’t really feel the need to watch scripted television OMG AS SOON AS IT AIRS! because it isn’t part of my daily conversation outside of this great little internet stop. Of course, that is because my social circle spends an inordinate amount of time discussing, you guessed it, sports.

  • sojournerstrange

    I’ve never ever had enough money to spend on extras, so I’ve /always/ relied on the internet.

    -shrug-

  • nerdyengineer

    Yeah, big cutback in movie theatre expenditures. I’ve passed on half a dozen movies this season I’d have normally gone to see on the big screen.

    I’m seriously debating cutting my cable TV and becoming reliant on Hulu & other online distribution. But I don’t know if I can handle missing my HBO series…. Big Love is coming back! HBO needs to make an HBOnline already.

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