Cut the cord couple years ago. $60/month for 300 up and down, firestick and YouTube TV. Mostly I watch plain ole YouTube though. Find a few channels your interested in and subscribe, you'd be surprised what's on it for free.
Cutting The Cord (so to speak)
- Thread starter fendrguitplayr
- Start date
Slip Kid
Tele-Afflicted
I got rid of my cable about 2 months ago. Frontier has recently brought fiber optic to my area. They are offering a promotion for YouTube TV. I believe it’s $55 for a year and goes up to $65 at the end of the promotion. From what I’ve heard they are no longer supporting cable and once you cancel it you can’t get it back from them.
Switching to fiber and ditching the cable brought my monthly $220 Frontier bill down the $50 range. I also have Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+ and Hulu (which I only have because of a $2/month for a year Black Friday deal). I’m not 100% into the YouTube TV, though. Mainly because I don’t find it easy to navigate. I’m used to easy remote channel surfing and punching channel numbers in for quick access. On YouTube TV you have to scroll through the listings. I’ll put up with it though to save $150/month.
BTW, I am in no way intending to promote Frontier with this post. I have had nothing but problems with their customer service and vent it out on them often. They haven’t even turned my cable off yet and it’s been 2 months. They don’t even want the equipment back and told to bring it to a recycling center. So free cable for me until they wake up!
Switching to fiber and ditching the cable brought my monthly $220 Frontier bill down the $50 range. I also have Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+ and Hulu (which I only have because of a $2/month for a year Black Friday deal). I’m not 100% into the YouTube TV, though. Mainly because I don’t find it easy to navigate. I’m used to easy remote channel surfing and punching channel numbers in for quick access. On YouTube TV you have to scroll through the listings. I’ll put up with it though to save $150/month.
BTW, I am in no way intending to promote Frontier with this post. I have had nothing but problems with their customer service and vent it out on them often. They haven’t even turned my cable off yet and it’s been 2 months. They don’t even want the equipment back and told to bring it to a recycling center. So free cable for me until they wake up!
I've run the numbers a few times. As much as I look for ways to "stick it to the man," it really doesn't achieve much in our case to move from cable/Prime/Netflix to any combination of 'scrips.
andy__d
Tele-Meister
We cut the cord back in 2017: got a good external antenna, and hooked it up to both the TV and our old desktop PC, with a tv capture card and Plex (which we use as a DVR). Streaming wise, we use Sling, which is $35 per month, but a necessity for UK soccer, along with peacock, which was $30 for a year ($2.50 a month), paramount (also annual on a deal @3.75 a month), and ESPN+, also annual @$6.66 per month. We also subscribe to the Sling sports package to get red zone during football season, which is an extra $10 per month for 4 months, and occasionally turn Willow on for a month, if there’s a test match I want to watch (also $10). We’ll also toggle one “premium” service, like Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV, Disney+, for one month at a time (binge watch everything for a month, then turn it off for 6 months), which are around $10-$15. Internet is $55 per month, so, it adds up to abou $113-127 a month. Still less than our cable bill used to be, but not a lot less.
Like so many of my millennial brethren I never even purchased cable in the first place. It was dead to us 15 years ago!
I do pay for Hulu (No Ads) because advertising is a plague upon humanity, and I bump it to the Live package in March for college basketball and then back down the rest of the year. If I want to watch other live sports I go to a bar, I'm not at the point where sitting in a recliner all day feels appropriate.
Everything else I handle through my Google Play account, but generally speaking Hulu has me covered except for my favorite movies that I want to own digitally, as I watch them multiple times a year (Tombstone, Jeremiah Johnson, Escanaba in da Moonlight)
I do pay for Hulu (No Ads) because advertising is a plague upon humanity, and I bump it to the Live package in March for college basketball and then back down the rest of the year. If I want to watch other live sports I go to a bar, I'm not at the point where sitting in a recliner all day feels appropriate.
Everything else I handle through my Google Play account, but generally speaking Hulu has me covered except for my favorite movies that I want to own digitally, as I watch them multiple times a year (Tombstone, Jeremiah Johnson, Escanaba in da Moonlight)
kctelegas
Tele-Meister
We canceled cable last March.
Our local library has free streaming services--Hoopla and Kanopy.
We each (two of us) get 10 views a month on each, so between that and YouTube (free, not YT TV), we've gotten by just fine.
We did do a trial run of AppleTV, and I think paid for a month of it ($6). Then dropped it.
When we canceled cable. we bought an antenna. but it is still in the box.
We also realized that our lives are not diminished by not watching the Chiefs every week.
We do pay for a subscription to MotoGP, which is around $160/yr.
I get a lot more practicing done these days.
Our local library has free streaming services--Hoopla and Kanopy.
We each (two of us) get 10 views a month on each, so between that and YouTube (free, not YT TV), we've gotten by just fine.
We did do a trial run of AppleTV, and I think paid for a month of it ($6). Then dropped it.
When we canceled cable. we bought an antenna. but it is still in the box.
We also realized that our lives are not diminished by not watching the Chiefs every week.
We do pay for a subscription to MotoGP, which is around $160/yr.
I get a lot more practicing done these days.
TV and sugar have things in common. If I stay away from sugar, in short order I stop wanting it. But let me eat one candy bar and all I can think about is the next one. After days without TV, I stop missing it. One night in front of the screen and I start thinking about all the good series I haven't seen yet.
Engine Swap
Friend of Leo's
Over-the-air, Roku, Kanopy (free from our library).
Jim_in_PA
Friend of Leo's
To me, "cutting the cord" refers to abandoning traditional "cable TV" type service...and perhaps, landline telephone. I did that years ago. All communication to our home is via fiber optic Internet from Verizon with 1gb symmetrical service. What little "TV" we watch is via streaming with a Hulu Plus LiveTV subscription which is substantially less in cost than what both Verizon and Comcast want to their traditional TV service.
burntfrijoles
Doctor of Teleocity
I cut the cord an about 5 years ago. I only have high speed (or what Comcast says is high speed) internet.
I have a subscription to Apple TV streaming, Peacock and occasionally Netflix. In college football season I subscribe to Sling for ESPN and SEC Network. My understanding is that Disney may do something different with the ESPN package including offering it as a standalone stream.
A good thing about Steaming services is that there is no contract so you cancel, resubscribe as much as you want. The bad thing is that they, like cable, bundle crap that you may not want.
I have an attic antenna (which is on the fritz) but I also have an indoor antenna I'm currently using for OTA broadcasts.
I do not miss cable.
I have a subscription to Apple TV streaming, Peacock and occasionally Netflix. In college football season I subscribe to Sling for ESPN and SEC Network. My understanding is that Disney may do something different with the ESPN package including offering it as a standalone stream.
A good thing about Steaming services is that there is no contract so you cancel, resubscribe as much as you want. The bad thing is that they, like cable, bundle crap that you may not want.
I have an attic antenna (which is on the fritz) but I also have an indoor antenna I'm currently using for OTA broadcasts.
I do not miss cable.
Here in UKLand, things are a little different. we have the free-to-view service 'Freeview' that is over the air or its satellite partner 'Freesat' Guess which delivery method that uses.
Already too many channels for me.
Many competing streaming services are advertised, to which I don't subscribe.
What I do have though, is an Android TV box. These are cheap as chips. I believe 'Roku' and the Amazon boxen are along similar lines. Quite a few of our OTA services also offer a free-with-ads streaming service with a good library, and there's iPlayer from the BBC. A VPN will allow worldwide viewing.
There are plenty of documentary, sport and music channels out there for free. You can also enjoy retro gaming on them
If you find a second-hand Acer Aspire Revo box or similar, you can have a PC running whatever OS you prefer into your TV. Add on a TV viewer, Kodi, VLC and away you go.
I quite like Internet radio. There's a good selection of niche radio channels available with sound quality equivalent to a 192K MP3 file or greater. Perfectly listenable. Subscription free.
Already too many channels for me.
Many competing streaming services are advertised, to which I don't subscribe.
What I do have though, is an Android TV box. These are cheap as chips. I believe 'Roku' and the Amazon boxen are along similar lines. Quite a few of our OTA services also offer a free-with-ads streaming service with a good library, and there's iPlayer from the BBC. A VPN will allow worldwide viewing.
There are plenty of documentary, sport and music channels out there for free. You can also enjoy retro gaming on them
If you find a second-hand Acer Aspire Revo box or similar, you can have a PC running whatever OS you prefer into your TV. Add on a TV viewer, Kodi, VLC and away you go.
I quite like Internet radio. There's a good selection of niche radio channels available with sound quality equivalent to a 192K MP3 file or greater. Perfectly listenable. Subscription free.
My main obstruction to going all streaming is local channels, MSNBC and sports.
Anything requiring a lot of pixels and fast movement like football doesn't work streaming for me. My internet/wi fi is too slow. So the picture looks like you are viewing through an aquarium. Once they stop and huddle its OK, Once the ball is hiked it's a blur.
1.48 Mbps download
0.35 Mbps upload
Latency: 28 ms
Server: Seattle
Anything requiring a lot of pixels and fast movement like football doesn't work streaming for me. My internet/wi fi is too slow. So the picture looks like you are viewing through an aquarium. Once they stop and huddle its OK, Once the ball is hiked it's a blur.
1.48 Mbps download
0.35 Mbps upload
Latency: 28 ms
Server: Seattle
Happy Enchilada
Friend of Leo's
We had DirecTV. Paid over $100 a month.
Included dozens of shopping, sports, and kiddie channels we never watched.
So we ditched 'em.
Now we have Netflix (wife likes it, I don't so much).
And Amazon Prime (free with credit card or I wouldn't bother).
And hulu (amazing!!!).
So if it were up to me, we'd just have hulu for $14 a month (non-commercial version).
Our WWW provider is SparkLight.
We have an uber-fast hookup for $80 a month.
We could probably back that down and pay less, but I deduct it as a business expense.
My business is virtual so I need fast WWW.
For phones, we were with Verizon once upon a time.
Charging me almost $200 a month for 3 cells and a "home phone" with router.
Switched to Consumer Cellular.
Now we pay under $100 a month for 3 cells and home phone.
No complaints @ coverage.
And their support staff is all native English speakers.
Not to mention a library of how-to videos for every phone they support.
And they support ALL the newest and groooviest phones.
Which they sell for less than retail.
Couldn't be happier.
Included dozens of shopping, sports, and kiddie channels we never watched.
So we ditched 'em.
Now we have Netflix (wife likes it, I don't so much).
And Amazon Prime (free with credit card or I wouldn't bother).
And hulu (amazing!!!).
So if it were up to me, we'd just have hulu for $14 a month (non-commercial version).
Our WWW provider is SparkLight.
We have an uber-fast hookup for $80 a month.
We could probably back that down and pay less, but I deduct it as a business expense.
My business is virtual so I need fast WWW.
For phones, we were with Verizon once upon a time.
Charging me almost $200 a month for 3 cells and a "home phone" with router.
Switched to Consumer Cellular.
Now we pay under $100 a month for 3 cells and home phone.
No complaints @ coverage.
And their support staff is all native English speakers.
Not to mention a library of how-to videos for every phone they support.
And they support ALL the newest and groooviest phones.
Which they sell for less than retail.
Couldn't be happier.
