We don't have tv service. none. The cable bill was ridiculous, and a new cable company was installing it's service in our neighborhood... so I figured, I'd cancel the current one and then get the new service. Well, the installation took longer than we thought and we went w/o any tv service for about 5 months. DID NOT MISS IT! Well, we have the new company now, and since we didn't miss the TV, we opted to just get internet service through them, and no tv. We haven't had TV for 8 months. So, we watch an occasional youtube video or hulu video, and we also have netflix through our game console as of a month ago... but, we go without viewing anything for days!
How we do it? Well, I'm a stay at home home with four kids(7,6,4 and 2)- two go to school, and the other two are too young for school, so I am definitely in situations where many parents would have their kids watch TV... but instead, I have them either "help" me with what I'm doing, play in their playroom (that has NO electronic toys... just imaginative play stuff), have them color right next to me, do puzzles, or they just make up their own pretend games on their own. We go outside frequently- take walks, play in the dirt, sidewalk chalk, ride the tricycle, etc. When you get used to it, it really isn't a struggle!
I use my "veg out" time after the kids go to sleep:)