[electromagnetic]

That's actually a good question. I watch a limited number of shows, and I wonder if simply buying the DVD's of a program would turn out to be cheaper than actually subscribing.

Edit: I mean I've seen boxsets in BestBuy for as little as $25 and they're shows I watch.

If I had all the series of Simpsons, Futurama, Mythbusters, Family Guy and American Dad I believe from then on I believe I would rather use the monthly subscription fee (about $150 here for all the channels we want; TMN is great to have as they're free of charge for a monthly fee, I get all the recent Stargate and Dexter episodes and most of the big movies not too long after they're out for rental) for buying more boxsets and movie rentals.

[unalone]

The only HBO show I've bought myself was The Wire, on sale for $90 the entire season. That's less than $2 an episode. iTunes sells shows for $20 a season? That would be $100 for all of The Wire.

How much does HBO charge a month?

[electromagnetic]

I don't think we get the actual HBO channel here in Canada, but The Movie Network (TMN) has a channel dedicated to HBO shows and you can get them On Demand for free. They also carry the On Demand for the Space (Sci-Fi) channel here. So we get HBO bundled into the movie package, which was a total of $35 a month IIRC, but with 5 people in the house we do get through a lot of movies so it actually has good value for money, especially as they get most of the recent movies and the actual movie rental costs ~$5, it only takes 7 rentals a month to get your moneys worth.