Better Than Cable TV?

Despite the fact that we don't get to watch a lot of TV lately due to a certain pint-sized boy who keeps turning it off whenever it's not on his favorite cartoon channel, we are still thinking of what the better option is: cable or directtv. We don't really like the options we're presented with on free TV. While admittedly, there are also channels we hardly watch on cable TV, there are also a lot of channels which are far more education and/or entertaining than the choices presented on free TV, with a lot less ads. Somebody mentioned that Direct TV may in fact be a better choice. They offer a lot more summer TV fare like the NASCAR which I'm sure my husband will love and my little boy will grow to love (he's more into CARS at this age :)), at a reasonable price.