Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

[ExFlyBoy5]

How about $0.00/year?

To me, this thread is hilarious since everyone posting in it seems to be paying as much for streaming services as they previously paid for cable TV. To me, that completely obliterates the entire point of cutting the cable. Apparently I'm an oddball since most seem to see this differently from me.

Nope, you are 100% correct. Several 100 posts ago, I made the comment that the consumer will NOT win this game. The entertainment industry makes way too much money off us suckers...we aren't "gaming" the system at all.

We did actually go back to cable TV but the systems they use (mostly cloud based) are just as glitchy as the Fires, Rokus, etc. (in my opinion). I am willing to pay a premium for premium service, but my idea of 'premium' differs significantly that what industry deems to be 'premium'.

 

[gromit]

Just fyi: Hulu is having a Thanksgiving weekend sale, $1.99 per month for 12 months. This is the "ad supported", ie with commercials version. I'm not a Hulu subscriber and don't know how good their content is. Deal is here: https://www.hulu.com/welcome


Note: This includes the streaming library, but not the live channels in Hulu + Live TV

 

[JoeWras]

Nope, you are 100% correct. Several 100 posts ago, I made the comment that the consumer will NOT win this game. The entertainment industry makes way too much money off us suckers...we aren't "gaming" the system at all.

Not only are we losing, we are also forming new tribes, just like what seems to be happening everywhere else. And I think that behavior is a loss.

55 years ago, nearly everybody watched the Beverly Hillbillies. (Look it up, I'm not joking: https://www.metv.com/stories/just-a...ome-of-the-highest-rated-episodes-of-all-time)

Now we have our Netflix tribes, our Disney+ Mandalorian tribes, etc. As the fracturing continues, I'm sure certain news outlets will fall to certain services and we'll start mixing our political tribes with our streaming tribes. Oh, that's going to be fun. (Actually, I think this is starting to already happen.)

 

[MissMolly]

The only thing we pay for is Amazon Prime, but we had that long before we ever cut the cord. We get non-live Hulu free with our phone plan, we are on our son's Netflix. We use our antennae for OTA shows. We have Rokus which give us access to all sorts of other free stuff. So our cost is about $12 a month for Amazon Prime and $69/month for internet (which we would have regardless of any sort of streaming or cable service). We were paying over $200 for cable + Internet. So it looks to me like we are saving quite a bit each month.

 

[Ready]

Hulu is having a Black Friday sale today. $1.99/month for 12 months for their basic service. I signed up this morning. It seems like they have a lot of content that we will eventually watch so it’s a pretty good deal for us.

 

[JoeWras]

5 mentions of Hulu's black Friday promo. Can I have another?

 

[harllee]

How about $0.00/year?

To me, this thread is hilarious since everyone posting in it seems to be paying as much for streaming services as they previously paid for cable TV. To me, that completely obliterates the entire point of cutting the cable. Apparently I'm an oddball since most seem to see this differently from me.

Not so --I have YoutubeTV and have recently considered going back to Spectrum cable. To get what I have on YoutubeTV (same channels, DVR etc) would cost me over $50 per month more. The only thing Spectrum would give me that I want and do not have on YoutubeTV is Fox Regional Sports --I guess I will just have to learn to live without that.

 

[JoeWras]

Don't tell W2R, but I just ponied up $2.13 (after tax) for Hulu ad-supported per month.

This is just FYI. I previously had a trial with them a few months ago. When I went to the discount page, I put in my email that I created when I signed up with the trial. It threw me to a new page asking for me to log in. I did so, and it still presented me with the $1.99 discount. No problems.

I also dropped $12 and change for a year of CuriosityStream.

I go to my calendar and put a notice on 11/20/21 for me to consider my options with these services next year, so I can cancel before auto-renew. Actually, for Hulu I can drop any time. For CuriosityStream, I'm paid thru next year.

 

[Ready]

I've watched a few shows on Hulu now and still have not seen any ads. When do the ads show up?

 

[pb4uski]

I'm going to disappoint W2R as well. Two years ago we were paying $65 for Dish in Vermont and basic cable in our condo HOA fee and $10 to add a DVR. Today we pay $0 in Vermont since we use OTA and a Fire TV Recast OTA DVR and the same $10 for a DVR in Florida so we're definitely spending less.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I've watched a few shows on Hulu now and still have not seen any ads. When do the ads show up?

It depends on who owns the rights to the show you are watching. Much of the content THEY own while others, they do not. Usually, shows that aired in the previous few days on some networks (CBS as an example) will have commercials.

 

[pb4uski]

While the $1.99 Hulu deal is tempting, I think I'll pass this time... we've done it twice before and didn't find a lot of content that was interesting.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I keep seeing the "Discovery Family of Networks" being run at the bottom of their networks and recently, this self promotion has ramped up with full blown commercials. The only reason I can see this is that they are trying to put in viewer's minds that they offer SO MANY NETWORKS...and this is being done because they are going to launch their OWN streaming service.

Well, couldn't see this coming, eh?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/dis...ervice-in-january-for-4point99-per-month.html

 

[JoeWras]

Well, couldn't see this coming, eh?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/dis...ervice-in-january-for-4point99-per-month.html

I'm shocked, I tell ya!

Although this proliferation of services is maddening, I'm kind of warming up to rotating them through the year. If Discovery+ has Science on it, then I'll likely dump Philo. I mostly watch Discovery channels on Philo.

 

[REWahoo]

Although this proliferation of services is maddening, I'm kind of warming up to rotating them through the year.

+1

The only streaming services I keep long term are Prime and, because of the $1.99/mo deal, hulu. We rotate in and out of several others, usually two at a time, and rarely keep any of them for more than a couple of months before switching to something else.

 

[someguy]

So far, I've not been unable to FF with YTTV. This applies only to "recordings" you add/make. If you use or select the on-demand version, you may or may not be able to FF.

Also, with YTTV via LG TVs (LG native YTTV app) and Amazon Fire TV, we're able to FF through commercials with acceptable precision. It's not as good as a local DVR, but good enough.

Hey, I get it. And I am more than willing to pay for the content. As a matter of fact, I bet there are a decent number of folks that would even pay a premium for that...I am one (for the few shows that I do really like) but it's almost impossible to do so. There just has to be more money in it for the content owners to sell ads than it is for the end consumer to pay extra to opt out of them totally. Of course, this isn't and end all be all...I readily admit that there are plenty of choices with no ads; Netflix, Amazon, etc.

DVRs were great, but they are getting smart with this, too. Our cable company only has a cloud based version and there are several shows that you cannot FF no matter what you do. Even a couple of channels seem to let you FF, but then will kick you back to the beginning of the show.

 

[tb001]

Agree with others who have said they’re saving big by cutting the cord. We had multiple TVs with cable boxes on most, so that alone increased our cable bill by a huge amount. We were paying over $250+/mo just for Cox and then also paying for Netflix and 1-2 other random streaming services. We now pay 60/mo for internet and $30 for sling. We still have Netflix and will turn on hbo or acorn for 1-2 months, watch what we want, and then turn them off and watch something else. We’ve consolidated all of our subscriptions through prime, which makes it super easy to switch them on/off as we finish watching what we want.

 

[beowulf]

I agree with W2R that cord cutting may be less of a bargain than many think. It all depends on what you want to watch and how you want to watch it. We have Xfinity, with an X1 box/DVR, 4 additional set top boxes, 200mbps speed, HBO (with Peacock), Showtime, everything that’s OTA live in our area, a slew of other channels, and until Dec 31, we had free Norton Security (they are ending that so they can charge us for their own version).

I’ve tried OTA from our home - not great - we live 5 miles from a major airport with planes flying overhead about every 5 minutes. Before cable we would lose signal on most channels as the aircraft passed overhead. The one TV I have with an OTA antenna as an experiment has digital signal dropout when the planes fly by.

With all the fees, internet alone would cost about $90 a month. We get Prime because we like to subsidize Jeff Bezos’ alimony payments. Add HBO and Showtime and we are up to about $130 or more. Add one or two of the services that provide local TV stations and you are at $190, if you are lucky. We pay $210 a month for everything we have. Of course there is a time consuming, aggravating, nasty negotiation every two years, but I’ve found that emailing the CEO always nets a better deal. And, to be clear, I HATE cable companies. But I also HATE car dealerships. But we choose to make life easier for ourselves and spend a few bucks more to get what we want, how we want it. If money was the only issue, then we would pursue other options - and one day we might. But, for now, convenience trumps dollars, especially during COVID times when we can no longer travel.

DW is a big TV fan and has enough trouble with the 4 remotes we use (Xfinity, Samsung, sound bar and Roku). We’ve tried universal remotes and they won’t integrate all the controls, so why bother?

Like I said - it all depends on what you want to watch and what you are willing to pay. A savings of $30 to $40 a month, at least for us, isn’t worth all the switching between apps and keeping track of everything. We did save for retirement and this is one of many things we are willing to pay more for at this point in our lives.

YMMV

 

[Time2]

I'm certainly not paying more, I was at $140 a mo when I dropped cable. I then paid $40 a mo for internet. I use OTA, Modbro, Usgotv.go, and Pluto TV, also have watched some of Uncle Earls Classic TV. My internet provider recently raised my price to $50.
I have saved over $3,000 since I dropped cable in April 2018. You can subtract out about $80 for Firesticks.

 

[RonBoyd]

internet alone would cost about $90 a month.

We’ve tried universal remotes and they won’t integrate all the controls, so why bother?

You use the Internet exclusively for Television and no other use?

I have found the Logitech Harmony Elite Remote able to control anything I have thrown at it. It is rather on the pricy side but it replaces eight individual remotes (and could, in addition, control our lights and cameras if wanted). https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/harmony/harmony-elite.915-000256.html

We, also, have a Logitech Harmony Companion Remote in the Kitchen which controls three devices (Vizio TV, ROKU Ultra, and a nVidia Shield). I am sure it would work well in your situation (at a more modest price). https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/harmony/harmony-companion.915-000239.html?crid=60

 

[beowulf]

Of course not. Even if you count the internet as a sunk cost, local TV does not come with it. You are going to have very limited or no access to live TV unless you pay for it. Also HBO and Showtime are pricey. Could we do without them? Sure, but we are not getting any younger and see no reason to deny ourselves things we enjoy. We spent many years putting aside money for when we retired - guess what? We are retired and saving an immense amount of money by not traveling. We want to, but being Covid high risk makes it moot.

The issue with the universal remotes is that I would need 4 of them - one for each TV. That doesn't include the one OTA set we have. It's just easier to use what we have - until Alexa turns off the smart bulbs at night .

 

[REWahoo]

Made me look.

Before cutting the cord two years ago we were paying $157/mo for internet ($77) and Dish ($80). This year we've averaged $90/mo for internet ($60), OTA ($0) and a variety of streaming services ($30), saving more than $800 for the year. Plus our programming choices are far better.

Even if satellite or cable was considerably less than what we currently pay I would never return to the world of two-year contracts.

 

[JoeWras]

I didn't cut the cord until I got off my sports addiction. First, we had the sports drought. Then when it returned, it didn't give me the enjoyment it used to.

I never was a big news consumer. When you don't have to worry about sports and news, cutting the cord is easy.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Celebrating 6 years of cord cutting. I have dipped back in for occasional discounted or free cable deals, but nuked the cord when the deal expired. Currently, I have my OTA DVR (Tablo), Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hoopla (free through library) and various other free channels on my roku's. I had Disney+ for a year, thanks to Verizon. Subscribed to Acorn TV for a few months - well worth it. I watch CNBC for the free 10 minutes a day. Sling was good, but without sports, I found I was not watching it. Also tried YouTube TV. It was good for a few months.

 

[pb4uski]

... We have Xfinity, with an X1 box/DVR, 4 additional set top boxes, 200mbps speed, HBO (with Peacock)...

At least in our area our Xfinity basic cable includes a complimentary subscription to Peacock (with ads)... I upgraded to to the no-ads version for $5/month).... so if you don't watch much of HBO's content and keep HBO for Peacock, you may not need to. YMMV.