Finally getting on board with deleting the expensive cable/tv/phone subscription. Any recommendations?
We have a firestick on our TV. We have Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix and HBOMax. The kids have Disney Plus and Apple TV. We all share the subscription services. Right now we have Peacock so that H can watch the Tour de France. Our internet is Spectrum which costs $70 (incldes a home phone) a month and with all of our subscription services it is still way cheaper than the $240 a month we used to pay for internet, cable and phone. We also have an antenna to get the local news and other over the air stations here in San Diego.
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Watch how many subscription services you sign up for. They can get as expensive as cable. If you are getting rid of a landline, make sure that you go through everything to replace it with your cell. Hertz still had my old number years after I got rid of it they tried to call once about a reservation. Financial accounts that you do use often are other places that you may have a stale number. Many use them for one time passcodes. If they don’t have your correct number it may cause issues.
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Is this necessary? I looked up our HULU and it says we’ll get the 4 local network stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox). It does look like we’d lose our local CW channel (which we never watch( and a few that are tied to the others (like the NBC local news is on a secondary station at 9 while the main station is on at 10.
We just got a smart TV and want to cut the cord too, but just can’t give up local news and sports.
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I cut the cord earlier this month. I only have paid subscriptions to 2 services – Netflix at $4/month and Hulu at $1/month. I found that this combination offers far more shows than I’d ever want to watch, as well as most of the few summer broadcasts shows that I enjoy, such as Better Call Saul and The Old Man.
I also enjoy a few interesting classic shows on the Roku Channel that are not found on the others and enjoy some isolated shows on other streaming channels, such as Mythbusters on Discovery.
Rather than an adequate substitute for traditional cable, I’ve found streaming to be a superior alternative due to a larger library of shows that I especially enjoy. There are many options and combinations of channels, depending on what types of show you watch. My favorites are Netflix and Hulu. However, if you are big on live sports, news, or just flipping through channels without knowing what you want to watch; then you’d probably want a different combination of services.
I believe you are talking about Hulu + Live TV, which has a sticker price of $70/month — many times more than the cost of Hulu streaming without live broadcast. There are a variety of other streaming + live TV combinations to choose from as well.
Congrats on the cord cutting decision. We did it recently land couldn’t be happier. Indeed, I started a thread on the move:
Picking a streaming service depends on your desired channel lineup and budget. For example, live sports and/or ESPN can often be a factor. When we looked, SlingTV had a package with ESPN but only allowed one streaming device at a time (not ideal for our family), whereas their same package without ESPN allowed three simultaneous streams. Channel lineups/packages/prices are always changing so you need to review the latest.
We started with SlingTV, but the lack of local channels (unless you clumsily integrated OTA) turned us off. It was just too inconvenient to record network programs and to channel surf. Their base DVR was also lacking in capacity and required us to pay more for more capacity.
Ultimately we landed on YouTube TV. We love it. The unlimited dvr is incredible! We record everything and then basically watch what we recorded on-demand. For instance, we record several syndicated sitcoms and soon YTTV has built an impressive library of episodes neatly sorted by season sequence. As another example, I record a news channel all day weekdays, then when I want to watch I pick the most recent recording (often in progress) and fast forward through commercials so that I’m optimizing my time. YTTV carries the local network channels which makes dvr recording and channel surfing so much easier for us. YTTV also has ESPN. The downside is that YTTV costs more than many other packages but we are saving lots vs cable.
YTTV and some others let you take the service on the road. So when we vacation we bring a Roku stick and stream our programs where we are staying. If you own more than one residence it is once again superior to cable.
The flexibility to put a tv anywhere (as long as it receives a wifi signal) is so convenient. Whereas before you needed a coax line and a rental box, now you’ll find yourself placing a tv in many places with ease (in front of treadmill, on kitchen countertop, guest room infrequently used, etc).
In terms of the internet, which is so vital, we find that we have no problems with the base speed offerings these days. Even with multiple people streaming in our house we have never encountered capacity constraints. I feel like the cable companies try to upsell you with capacity you don’t require. Base speeds are like 100 MBS which works for us even with streaming. Again, ymmv.
Ok that’s a pretty long post by me again on the topic but I’m a huge believer in streaming and feel it’s the way to go.
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Google Fiber TV got out of the cable biz so I was forced to choose another TV provider. Went with Directv Stream because it’s the only way to watch local MLB. The service is fine, I guess, if a little clunky. I’ll probably change to something that offers Magnolia in the fall so I can watch Maine Cabin Masters. I also have Netflix and Discovery +.
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I live in Brooklyn, NYC in an apartment. I hang an antenna on my window latch and get the local CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CW and PBS stations, plus all the sub-channels–the regular broadcast WCBS is 2.1, but then there’s 2.2, etc. Here’s the antenna:
I also have Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Max, and Hulu that I can get on my smart TV. I pay for my wifi, $50/month, came with the router. Of course I can stream all the above on my laptop, phone, etc.
We cut the cable TV cord several years ago now. We have subscriptions to Netflix and Disney+ and are pretty happy with that so far. Don’t miss cable TV at all.
We did this and after about 10 months went back to cable. I thought the combination of HULU Live No Adds Unlimited Screens (now $86/month and doesn’t guarantee no ads at all) and Netflix $20/month would still save us money. But the inconvenience was not worth it. We went back to cable for $150/month.
Hulu seems to raise their price every few months. Their Cloud DVR service is terrible: very inconvenient to manage and you can’t fast forward through ads on most shows. I got sick of having to go through 10 steps just to turn on a ball game. Maybe other services are better.
How did you pull this off? Are you still mailing DVDs?
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We just had this conversation about the interface of Direct Stream last night. We has Direct TV with a dish, but the package was getting expensive and AT&T offered a deal when we upgraded cell phones to AT&T Stream (or whatever it was called). That was rough and did not have our PBS station. It then morphed into Direct Stream and we were hoping it would get better. We will change as well.
You are in luck - Magnolia and Maine Cabin Masters is on Discovery+.
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This is the worst part of streaming. Left to my own devices, I would graze through game after game. But now it’s: 1) click to get out of current game, 2) click to choose next game, 3) click for broadcast choice (home or away), 4) click for “live” or “start from the beginning” - it’s exhausting. I use to just hit “channel up.” And the loading between each click takes forever.
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For those of you who no longer have cable or dish TV: how do you watch sports? Particularly football games?
That’s probably one of the last things making me hold on to my cable subscription.
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Haha - I thought the name of the thread meant umbilical cord! 
But timely nonetheless.
We have been discussing this issue this week after Verizon FiOs hiked up our bill, my spouse spent a boatload of time on the phone with them, they gave us a package back at at previous rate, we changed our router and boxes…but then we got a bill and it was $50 more a month than agreed upon!
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Depends what sports you want to watch. I have YouTubeTV and get all the sports I want to watch. College football and basketball mainly. Didn’t realize until a year into though that we don’t get our local MLB team (didn’t notice because we don’t look to watch). Team is on one specific network and there are very few options for getting it.
We get NFL games too. Seems like we get NBA games but I don’t watch much so cannot say how much coverage we have.
Ultimately, you need to check the specific sports you are looking to watch and see what streaming services carry them. Will vary by areas of the country.
We dropped Netflix a couple months ago. Customer service is horrible. Someone stole our account by changing the email address. So we couldn’t watch it (but were still paying for it). Customer service someone made an unauthorized change (we never got notice of it – did they send notice to the new email address?). Told them to cancel account but they allowed whoever stole the account to reactivate it and use my credit card again. Made no sense. Wanted them to delete the account so it could never be reactivated. They apparently cannot do that. Removed credit card info so at this point even if they reactivate it, I won’t pay for it. And not having it for 3 months at this point, we don’t miss it.
Google Chromecast is pretty good at learning how you watch and listing shows/programs across platforms and it finds the right platform.
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Two options I’m aware of:
1.) You can try to use a digital antenna to pick up the local channels. Whether you can do this depends on your location so before spending money on a digital antenna go to one of the websites that tells you what you’re likely to pick up from your location.
2.) You have to subscribe to a streaming service that includes local affiliates like HULU Live. This raises the price quite a bit. Also, if you’re traveling you won’t be able to use a device to stream a local game - If you’re in Boise, you won’t get that Red Sox or Phillies, or Yankees game.
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On YouTube TV, I have ESPN (1, 2, U, news), ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Fox Sports 1&2, MLB, NBA, NFL, CBS Sports, Golf and the Olympic channel. Plus TBS, TNT and the others where basketball is sometimes shown.
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@twoinanddone I don’t know why H has an antenna too, but it was less than $25 and he likes all the channels he gets with it.
Hulu has had a $1/month option on each of the past 2 Black Fridays. I have the Netflix standard plan with HD streaming and access to full library. It’s probably not a good idea to explain in elaborate detail, but a hint is my exact rate is ($6.94/100)*57.99 = $4.02 per month. If you search around, that is enough information to figure it out.
We haven’t had cable in a lot of years and don’t miss it at all. If there is something special we want to watch we buy a months subscription on Sling for that.
There is plenty of streaming TV. We get the local channels and PBS with our antenna. It’s in our attic and gives us better reception than cable did.