It's definitely worth getting rid of cable whenever possible, and I'm not alone in my belief. Cable companies have lost up to 25% of their customer base in the last year, yet they continue to offer limited service in some cases and raise prices yearly. What other company (besides a public utility) loses customers and still raises prices?

But...make a list of everything you watch and make sure that everything is available elsewhere. Not every show is streamed, and not every show is available on Hulu Plus. Shows like E's The Soup are only available on Hulu as clips, for instance.

But if you can find all your shows online, yes, ditch those MFs. They would do it to you.

By the way, it was fun while it lasted, but a lot of online streaming involves commercials now, though not nearly as many or as long.

I haven't had cable in a while but that is mostly because of SABnzbd+ and Newzbin and Giganews.

You can download anything off of usenet but a decent usenet host is about $25/month. It's much safer than torrenting too. Still way illegal though.

Then get a AppleTV, jailbreak it (use greenpois0n) so it can stream anything via Plex, sign up for Netflix, and you're good to go with infinite access to every TV show and movie, no commercials, at about $40/month total.

And yeah your cable might get more expensive. My 15mbit/3mbit cablemodem from Comcast is $75/month after fees and taxes.

The others here have sold you on getting rid of the cable I'll tell you how to be happy that you did.

Get a used or older mac mini and install Plex. ( the low rent version of this is any computer and installing XMBC) use your television as a monitor - or sell your television unless you want to plug an antenna into it and buy a cheaper monitor.

Plex and XMBC are basically interfaces for video (and audio) content on the web. You don't want to be browsing from netflix.com to comedy central.com while you're sitting back on the couch. With plex you can use a remote to navigate to "Channels" where you can see lists of content. You can also browse your own video and audio collections and playback virtually anything.

It is what AppleTV or GoogleTV should be.
http://www.plexapp.com/

I think it really depends on how much TV you watch and how you watch TV. If you watch a few programs but don't really sit in front of the TV and channel surf or have it on as background noise I think it makes sense to shift to Hulu's premium service, Netflix and Amazon Prime. I haven't had a TV for over 3 years and don't miss it. I watch a few programs on Hulu and stream a lot of movies and other content on Netflix. I also listen to NPR and other radio quite a bit. Not to mention reading, a lot of reading.

If you flip channels a lot or just like using the TV for background noise and zoning out you might find the transition more difficult.

We just got roku this week (which I think is much more versatile than apple tv) and returned the Comcast box at their office way up north on Stone Way yesterday.

We signed up for hulu plus, and my bf has amazon prime anyways so we've been watching some free tv that way. So far it's almost perfect - the picture quality on our ancient tv is much better with roku than with comcast non-HD cable; browsing through roku with the remote can be rough but once we get our Hulu queue going it should be easier to find the shows we want to watch. We have qwest dsl and everything is streaming great over our wireless network.

There are a couple of Food Network shows we like that don't have current shows available through the roku channels. We were thinking about getting apple tv too but our equipment is too old, and it's probably just going to be easier for us to hook my old computer up to our tv with a new cable and watch shows on itunes that way, if we decide it's really worth it.

I can't think of a reason why someone should keep cable at this point; the most expensive roku is $99 and the monthly subscriptions are so cheap compared to cable that it didn't make sense for us to keep comcast for a bunch of channels we never watch.

If you decide to go with roku, check out the nowhereman.com projects - I love the option to watch al-Jazeera english live or listen to NPR programs on tv.

Totally.

No tv in my house, but internet is combined into price of rent. [it's comcast anyway]

The best part about subscribing to such Hulu and Netflix things is that A) access from any home or hot-spot. B) share with a friend. My house and my friend's apartment use one netflix account, with the cost spread out it's super cheap.

you may also want to learn to torrent though.

Lots of fun had been had via streaming, but don't forget all the channels you can get via an antenna. (In Seattle it's over 20 channels.) It will allow you to do that surfing and zoning that was mentioned in another answer:

"Rabbit Ears Perk Up for Free HDTV"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/business/media/06rabbitears.html

Not really because you are still limited to some programming, but if you are doing this just to have TV everywhere you go and not have to worry about there expensive rates I would check out DISH Network. They do not have any monthly charges with there TV everywhere or any one time fees just a supported 722 model receiver and a Sling adapter! DISH Network has there own app for this and will allow you to schedule your recordings and manage them from your mobile device. Comcast app does not have that ability and DISH Network app is free! As a DISH employee and subscriber DISH Network has always made strive in there technology and programming they provide a clear crisp picture in 1080i HD programming and there VOD is in 1080p, the sharpest picture for your HD TV.