If you are thinking about getting a new TV services package or TV and internet bundle (and you can see some great impartial reviews of DIRECTV internet here), you may be wondering whether it is worth including the premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz in your bundle, or getting the sports networks that cover the sports you love, when you can usually find a way to see these things online. Here we take a look at some of the pros and cons of subscribing to premium channels.

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Why You May Not Actually Need Those Paid Channels

If your intention is just to be able to see things, like your favorite football, baseball, hockey or basketball team playing live or the newest episode of Game of Thrones, then you can usually find ways to stream these things. While not always completely legal, streams do tend to exist, which is how people from outside of the US who want to watch US sports events not televised outside of the States or see American shows before they are aired in their own countries manage to watch these things. The quality will not be great in most cases, and unless you have the hardware to run your computer’s images through your TV you will have to watch them on your laptop or tablet, but you will be able to get the gist of what is going on. If you want to watch the shows on premium cable but don’t care about seeing them as soon as they are aired, you can also just wait for a much cheaper service like Netflix to carry them and marathon watch the whole season or series sometime in the future.

Why It Can Be Worth the Money to Keep Premium Cable

If you use all of the features and watch a lot of live sport or high end drama, then cable can be well worth the money for the enhancement it gives to your home entertainment options. If simply ‘seeing’ something is not enough, and you want the best possible experience (which can make a lot of difference when it comes to lavishly designed TV shows or sports games where you want to truly be able to spot whether you agree with a referee’s decisions), you want to watch it in glorious HD or 3D on your TV. For many, this quality alone is worth the subscription, as is getting the shows the moment they air, helping avoid those pesky Twitter and Facebook friends who post spoilers! By using interactive features that give shows more depth, DVR features that ensure you never miss anything, on demand services that let you catch up and discover new shows, and the facility to watch shows from these networks on the go on your phone or tablet, you can actually get a lot out of your cable package.

In short, whether cable is worth it or not depends on what matters to you with your TV viewing. Do you simply need to see it and know what happened, or do you want it beautifully presented with interactive features, and available instantly at a time to suit you?