Even when I had cable I would use Popcorn Time behind a VPN for TV shows. No messing with DVR that may or may not actually record the show. Nice Netflix-style list of available programs and the ability to bookmark favorites and see if there were any new episodes.

I'm sure if I had felt like setting it up, usenet automation + Plex server would have been even better but this was simple enough.

Again, I had cable and I had a cable box but it was that much easier to watch streaming torrents that I still watched unlicensed recordings like that.

Basically, if you are going to charge me a monthly fee to borrow some set top box, you need to make the set top box worth the expense. My only "legit" option was something that looked like a 1998 leftover that barely worked, worked slowly, and cost me almost $10/month to borrow. If I wanted one of the nicer boxes, I had to sign up for unrelated services like some "triple play" with phone service included. Not happening.

With a Usenet subscription, sabnzbd, and sonarr it's all automated. Subscribe to the shows you want and forget about the cable companies. Is it piracy to download shows broadcast on-the-air?

Ultimately I view it like I did music... give me a reasonable way to access and pay and I'll do so. And when iTunes came out I deleted my 10 gigs of mp3's and paid for music. I'll do the same when the media company come to their senses and respect the cost of scale they now have. I can live with that.