cord cutting article

timo2

timo2

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This is an interesting introduction for people that may want to cancel cable. For myself, until NHL, MLB and NFL combined are cheaper without cable or satellite, I won't be totally cordcutting anytime soon. But if you don't care about sports, than cord cutting looks like a better deal. (I'm not pushing this, site, it just seem interesting.)

Updated: Cord Cutting 101 – A Beginners Guide to Cord Cutting - Cord Cutters News
 
Just thinking out loud here. If I recall correctly:

NHL costs $160/yr
MLB costs $80/yr
NFL costs $100/yr (maybe more)?

Thats a total of $380 or roughly $30/month. Is your cable/satellite cheaper than that?

Also, a lot of people forget about good old fashioned over the air HD broadcasts. You can get a lot of NFL that way for sure - free. If you want it on your computers and such, look at the HDHomeRun by SiliconDust. It takes over the air HD TV and distributes it on your home network.
 
I don't think NFL is available except via DirecTV (other than OTA broadcasts)?


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I definitely need to do more research on this. I just bought and installed a Roku 3 box last week and have Netflix up and running. Goodbye, RedBox! I'm not sure if we have a contract with Comcast, but we've been here over a year and they're keeping our rates level for 2 years so that will be the decision point.

Has anyone found any easy way to find out what channels, movies, etc. are available before you subscribe to a service? So far I haven't found that part of it very transparent.

It's amazing how far the technology has come over the past few decades. I met my first husband in the 1980s and his sister and BIL were just starting to make money buying up cable TV franchises, adding channels and subscribers, and then selling them. I didn't even have cable till I moved in with him. SIL and BIL are retired now; they gracefully wound up the business when they saw the handwriting on the wall but they did very well. So did the Comcast stock I bought around then, with a basis of about $2/share. It was a good source for charitable donations although I have a few shares left.
 
We have Sling TV for sports. There is a decent des that if you pay for three months, you get an Apple TV (4th gen) for $89. I'd wanted to upgrade our Apple TV, so it was worth it to me. Plus, I figure at $20 a month, it cost less to do that than go to a bar to watch whatever game DH wanted to see.

There are a bunch of channels that come with it, but I haven't really done much checking what's on them. Nice that there's no contract.

We also have Netflix, which we use a lot.
 
I'm completely cordless, haven't even had fixed internet since seven years or so. No digital subscriptions either (like netflix).

DVD boxes, ted.com and youtube keep me plenty busy in video areas. Have a 10GB mobile data subscription and enjoy free wifi in lots of coffee places.
 
Articles like this seem to be just lists of subscriptions and devices we can spend our money on instead of cable, after cutting the cord. I thought the whole point of cutting the cord was saving money, silly me.

I am not such an obsessive consumerist that I hurt gravely deep inside and feel mortally wounded if I get the TV I want without spending money for it, OTA, and I do.
 
clobber said:
Just thinking out loud here. If I recall correctly:

NHL costs $160/yr
MLB costs $80/yr
NFL costs $100/yr (maybe more)?

Thats a total of $380 or roughly $30/month. Is your cable/satellite cheaper than that?

Also, a lot of people forget about good old fashioned over the air HD broadcasts. You can get a lot of NFL that way for sure - free. If you want it on your computers and such, look at the HDHomeRun by SiliconDust. It takes over the air HD TV and distributes it on your home network.
Click to expand...

I did the math, and after adding the sports channels, sling, netflix, it came very close to the satellite package plus netflix that I have now. plus the NHL only shows out of market teams IIRC, and I only get 7 OTH channels that are not religious ones or duplicates. But with sling I wouldn't need NFL, because it is getting red zone now. Maybe when I move to a place with more OTH channels it will be more cost effective for me.
 
We have used OTA and netflix for years, sometimes I'll pick up DVD's from library or redbox (with coupon).

We have too much to watch, never a night without something we want to see.

TV Spending is: $12/mo. or less.

We also get a cable based internet at $25/mo.
 
My programming is only $20/month for a very basic package. But a larger part of our bill (almost $40) is equipment for a central DVR and boxes for the three other tvs we have (4 tvs in total)... but being able to access the DVR from any of our 4 tvs is a really nice convenience.
 
W2R said:
Articles like this seem to be just lists of subscriptions and devices we can spend our money on instead of cable, after cutting the cord. I thought the whole point of cutting the cord was saving money, silly me.
Click to expand...
u

I think of it as maximizing the utility of the money I spend on programming. With the cable company I've always paid $$$ to get the channels I wanted, "bundled" with The Golf Channel, SpikeTV, a boatload of foreign-language programming (but not in either of the foreign languages I'd like to watch) and the Broccoli Channel. If I pay the same or less but there's more I want to watch (and I can drop Netflix, Hulu, etc. at any time), I've come out ahead.
 
cord cutting seems to be almost as complicated as when to take social security.:)
 
athena53 said:
u

I think of it as maximizing the utility of the money I spend on programming. With the cable company I've always paid $$$ to get the channels I wanted, "bundled" with The Golf Channel, SpikeTV, a boatload of foreign-language programming (but not in either of the foreign languages I'd like to watch) and the Broccoli Channel. If I pay the same or less but there's more I want to watch (and I can drop Netflix, Hulu, etc. at any time), I've come out ahead.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I pay a lot less for stuff I want to watch. More bang for the buck. Play Station Vue is the best deal out there for the programming I like. I get all the ESPN channels, Golf Channel, SEC and Big 10 NW, NFL NW and all the Fox sport channels. Plus many other channels like HGTV, Food, TBS, AMC, TNT, etc etc for $35/mo. Plus you get DVR and many on demand programs to watch. No DVR on Sling last I looked. I do have Amazon Prime but I had that with cable.

Some people are happy with OTA only and no pay TV. That's fine, but I want more and don't mind paying for it. But it sure is nice to pay a lot less for the programming I like.
 
timo2 said:
cord cutting seems to be almost as complicated as when to take social security.:)
Click to expand...
How about simplifying? For sports, how about going to the neighborhood watering hole? It would be more fun and more social. You probably would meet other fans. You might even lose a tooth if the opposition is there! What a way to spice-up your life! The audio is sometimes a problem, but you might be able to plug-in a blue tooth sender and have a speaker on your table (or headphones).
 

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