Saying that television viewing has changed from what we once enjoyed would seem like a gross understatement. Fact is, it’s nothing like it once was and I for one have struggled to be satisfied for a long, long time now.

I look to the TV mainly for nothing more than entertainment as I always have. A good movie, a good television drama series, a great comedy series, a decent news service, a good documentary, and a good sprinkling of the main sporting events and I’m pretty happy.

How far have we moved away from that?

Free to air television has become what I’d call insulting. It gives me about the same jollies that a cheap low-class chew and spew restaurant does. Yes, you get fed but the taste it leaves in your mouth is anything but satisfying. I could spend about 10,000 words discussing the merits of the various programs, but if I did, at the end, some people would totally agree with me while others would think I’m just another whinging old bloke who takes life too seriously.

My wife and I have been doing the Foxtel thing for the last couple of years and even that, in our view, has become an expensive exercise for the number of programs we watch. We cancelled our subscription recently and so far, haven’t missed it.

For Christmas our daughter gave us something called Apple TV which I didn’t have clue about. Given that gift, and some information she also told us about Netflix, we decided to upgrade our TV and give Netflix a go. The guy who helped us install everything also threw in his two bob’s worth and after a couple of months of no Foxtel, a new Apple TV gizmo and Netflix, I’ve actually enjoyed watching Television again. Netflix is costing about a quarter of the cost of our Foxtel package and there seems to be an endless supply of choice in both movies and TV series. Sport is not a priority to us, so we don’t miss that either. Netflix also seems very easy to navigate and the Apple TV set up gives us other options that we never knew existed. The other really nice thing about all this is we hardly ever see a television ad anymore. Apart from those times that we watch the news live, we tend to record most things or use the watch previous episodes facility, or we watch Netflix and by doing this we avoid the ads.

In case you’re wondering, this is not an ad for Netflix, or Apple TV, or anyone else but it may help those out there who have been struggling with what to do to get some reasonable television viewing. If there is a message in this, it’s this. Technology keeps changing and so do the opportunities for viewers, even when you’re old, grumpy and fussy like me. We put up with our situation for a long time when all we needed to do was ask someone younger and more savvy than us about the various options now available.

One final plug – if you do get Netflix, check out a TV series called Designated Survivor.