We have been without a cable connection for over 5 years now, and we only watch news on doordarshan. We have two children (both boys 10 & 8 years) and life with them has been so. To them books, comics, are the indoor past times and they spend more time on their bicycle and in the park.
Sometime back my son cut a sorry figure in the class and the teacher was very surprised and called us to confirm if our son was not used to watching TV.
We as a family spend more time talking, walking, and buying lots of books. Of course this proves to be costlier than having a cable connection at home but what I have seen is this give us a lot of peace of mind and live in a world of reality.
