Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[Buckeye]

On streaming content?

What about skip forward on the commercials in those streaming plans which are ad-supported?

That would be a huge deal.

On YTTV, I started watching a show (that I've put on my cloud DVR list) about 15-20 minutes after it has started so I can fast forward through the commercials.

It's hard when I'm watching Locast because I have to remember I can't stop and start or go forward and backward!

 

[Buckeye]

For those who have TMobile Internet how is it working for you? Any difficulty installing or streaming?

I've had my T-Mobile internet for about 2 months and it's working fine. Initially, the gateway was doing some weird stuff (resetting band names and passwords back to original) when the router was powered on and off but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore. I had to reset it twice in a week a couple of weeks ago but everything has been running smoothly lately.

They have an internet app but I don't know how you could properly set things up with that. I used my laptop. I suppose you could use a tablet also. I renamed my 2.4GHz signal so I could select it for my smart bulbs and security system. There are actually two 5 GHz signals (hi and low?) and one 2.4 GHz. They all started out with the same name but I couldn't get my lightbulbs connected so I did some renaming.

There will be no technician coming to your house to set it up or troubleshoot it for you so you have to be comfortable doing it yourself with phone support. The phone support people are much more familiar now with known issues. I received one of the new gateways in the initial launch and the support folks had never even seen one. We were both learning together.

It was well worth the effort to get things set up in order to be able to unplug my Spectrum modem (which was rent free) and return it!!!! And to hopefully never have to pay them ever again! When I received my T-Mobile (Nokia) gateway, I still had about 2 weeks left on the current month of Spectrum so if T-Mobile didn't work, I had a fallback.

My internet bill went from $74.99 per month to $50 per month. I just ran speedtest.net and my ping was 35 ms, 99 Mbps download, and 31 upload. It was up over 120 Mbps upload yesterday. Definitely enough for our streaming and surfing, by far.

 

[Buckeye]

Looks so tempting, to ditch Comcast and get T-Mobile internet. But it doesn't seem to be available in my area :-(.

Keep checking on T-Mobile internet availability. Put a monthly reminder in your phone. Personally, I would be checking weekly! I was initially told the same thing and then was pleasantly surprised it was available when I rechecked after Spectrum raised their monthly internet price AGAIN!

T-Mobile signals can be a challenge in rural areas so if you are rural, it might never be available. Also, they said they don't want to have too many customers in one area which might cause service to be degraded

My advice is to keep checking regularly because you are going to love not paying the cable company for anything!

 

[Yoheadden]

Have you compared Fubo to Sling with or without Locast?


We have Sling for $30/month which gives us pretty much every channel we had with Comcast.


We added Locast for the local channels for $5/month, but that isn't available in every market.


We're also paying $95.95 for internet with Comcast but the net savings still comes to $105/month for us.

I have compared the two. Locast isn’t available in my area and Fubo has the only package that includes the 3 Hallmark channels, plus 2 Lifetime channels. These were requirements in my household. Lol

Thank You Zinger and Pb4uski for pointing out my oversight. That makes me feel much better, not just with the savings, but I knew I had figured it beforehand just just couldn’t see where the shortcoming was.

This actually makes for a $72 savings off of my last Comcast Bill

 

[Yoheadden]

+1 ... so that is $186/month and $64/month savings.

How did you spend $500 on equipment? My modem/router cost $110 and Ooma Telo is $80.

You got a much better deal than I did for the modem combo.

Mine was $204 off Amazon Warehouse for a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 combo
2 Roku Ultras $201. I know I could have gotten away with 1 ultra and a cheaper unit, but peace in the house was worth the extra $.
Ooma $ $85 including tax.
So $490 in total

That will be paid off in 6/7 moths with my new savings and who knows, by then I might be able to drop one of the premium services for more of a savings.

 

[disneysteve]

I have compared the two. Locast isn’t available in my area and Fubo has the only package that includes the 3 Hallmark channels, plus 2 Lifetime channels. These were requirements in my household. Lol

Thank You Zinger and Pb4uski for pointing out my oversight. That makes me feel much better, not just with the savings, but I knew I had figured it beforehand just just couldn’t see where the shortcoming was.

This actually makes for a $72 savings off of my last Comcast Bill

Locast is steadily adding cities so check back periodically.


$72/month isn't a bad savings at all. Cutting cable is saving us $105/month. It's all good.

 

[Buckeye]

For those needing a VOIP phone, the OOMA's are on sale at Costco.com. Looks like anyone might be able to buy them as it does not say "Member Only" item.

https://www.costco.com/ooma-telo-air-2-with-hd3-handset-home-phone-service.product.100530274.html

 

[Cobra9777]

Apparently, the PBS app now has a live stream of your local PBS affiliate. Now sure how long this has been available. But I thought I'd post it here. We have the PBS Passport, but I'm not sure if that's required or not.

We have YTTV, which carries PBS. So I don't use the PBS app very often. This morning, I started the PBS app on Fire TV and the first icon in the top left is the live stream.

 

[Midpack]

Apparently, the PBS app now has a live stream of your local PBS affiliate. Now sure how long this has been available. But I thought I'd post it here. We have the PBS Passport, but I'm not sure if that's required or not.

We have YTTV, which carries PBS. So I don't use the PBS app very often. This morning, I started the PBS app on Fire TV and the first icon in the top left is the live stream.

Thanks, hadn’t noticed that. We watch The Newshour live on YT every night, so we may use the PBS app instead - I’ll give it a look. I’m only using the app for This Old House and occasionally Frontline and Nova lately.

[edit: just checked and Live TV is available on the PBS app here too, it works even though we let our Passport subscription lapse a while back. Thanks for pointing it out, I hadn’t noticed.]

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Locast Update

Locast is accessible to viewers in 17 counties in the Cleveland area including Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Holmes, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas, and Wayne.
It's well worth the $5 monthly donation

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/locast-expands-its-local-tv-service-to-cleveland-oh/

 

[smihaila]

Keep checking on T-Mobile internet availability. Put a monthly reminder in your phone. Personally, I would be checking weekly! I was initially told the same thing and then was pleasantly surprised it was available when I rechecked after Spectrum raised their monthly internet price AGAIN!

T-Mobile signals can be a challenge in rural areas so if you are rural, it might never be available. Also, they said they don't want to have too many customers in one area which might cause service to be degraded

My advice is to keep checking regularly because you are going to love not paying the cable company for anything!

Oh man, I would be so much into T-Mobile, especially after seeing their service's perks: fixed pricing, included equipment and without "rental" BS fees, no monthly caps, possibly speeds higher than 100mbs, sales tax included etc.

I don't seem to be in a rural or suburban area. But in Denver-Boulder CO metropolitan area, everything is rather semi-urban LOL.
Maybe there's a chance for me (Lafayette, CO, 80026)?

Thanks!

 

[Yoheadden]

Ported my old # over to Ooma today from Comcast. Called Comcast to cancel phone service and just keep the internet.
They have a special going on for internet only accounts.

Performance Internet Xfinity Flex 100Mbps = $70.95

Blast Internet 400Mbps (recently increased from 300Mbps) = $85.95

I went with the Blast. Price is good for 2 years, 1st year under contract.

 

[Yoheadden]

BTW, anyone that has an Ooma phone service. When you first connected, did only the Ooma base ring. We have 7 phones in the house and only the one connected to the Ooma unit rings. Customer Service said this could be because Comcast was still active on the line. I hadn’t canceled the service yet. Anyways, anyone experience this and what did you do to correct it ?

 

[pb4uski]

The 7 phones... are they each plugged into the wall? or are they cordless?

We had a 5-set cordless phone system base unit plugged into the Ooma and the other 4 handsets work fine.

If you use your house wiring it get trickier... you essentially have to replace what was feeding the house from the telco removed and replaced by a wire from the Ooma.

https://support.ooma.com/home/distributing-ooma-to-all-telephone-jacks/

 

[Yoheadden]

The 7 phones... are they each plugged into the wall? or are they cordless?

We had a 5-set cordless phone system base unit plugged into the Ooma and the other 4 handsets work fine.

If you use your house wiring it get trickier... you essentially have to replace what was feeding the house from the telco removed and replaced by a wire from the Ooma.

https://support.ooma.com/home/distributing-ooma-to-all-telephone-jacks/

1 is cordless. This is the one I used to connect to the Ooma base because it was the easiest to move. I was thinking it would connect directly from the outlet until I read the manual and what the recommended connection was.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

To avoid electric shock you need to disconnect the main telephone jack from the Telco.
It's generally in a box outside the house on your wall, find and unplug it.
https://support.ooma.com/home/distributing-ooma-to-all-telephone-jacks/

 

[Yoheadden]

To avoid electric shock you need to disconnect the main telephone jack from the Telco.
It's generally in a box outside the house on your wall, find and unplug it.
https://support.ooma.com/home/distributing-ooma-to-all-telephone-jacks/

Thank you. Luckily the boxes are well marked. It was easier than expected and the wires are surprisingly small. I’m amazed we had a good connection.

Once this was done and the Ooma was wired directly to the wall outlet, all phones rang. As a bonus, I get to keep my cordless in my office

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Locast is accessible to viewers in 17 counties in the Cleveland area including Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Holmes, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas, and Wayne.
It's well worth the $5 monthly donation

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/locast-expands-its-local-tv-service-to-cleveland-oh/

Available today, and in time to watch the college championship basketball games beginning March 19, you can now stream 39 local broadcast TV channels across more than two dozen counties in Portland, Washington and the surrounding area, including the cities of Salem and Tillamook in Oregon and Vancouver and Longview in Washington. www.locast.org

 

[explanade]

NFL signed a $110 billion deal for TV rights starting in 2023, to run for 11 years.

That's right $110 billion.

Amazon will get Thursday Night Football exclusively in 2023.

But the other networks will now be able to put NFL games on ESPN+, Peacock and Paramount +.

How much will those streaming subscriptions go up by then? Because they may justify it with NFL games. Plus it's two years from now so they may be able to raise prices naturally.

Disney + is raising prices as it's going to put on more Marvel and Star Wars original series.

The other question is, will any of the streaming services put NFL games in 4K and HDR?

Because it's unlikely OTA or cable will be broadcasting 4K HDR NFL games by then.


Not sure if this accelerates cord-cutting. There are other sports. Presumably the other sports when they negotiate their next TV deals will look for big increase in money as well as some kind of streaming rights.

 

[mpeirce]

NFL signed a $110 billion deal for TV rights starting in 2023, to run for 11 years.

...

How much will those streaming subscriptions go up by then? Because they may justify it with NFL games. Plus it's two years from now so they may be able to raise prices naturally.

I'd much rather the NFL (and other leagues) start their own streaming services. People who want to watch NFL games can buy it, other's don't.

 

[euro]

I'd much rather the NFL (and other leagues) start their own streaming services. People who want to watch NFL games can buy it, other's don't.

I very much agree, but I doubt they could generate as much revenue that way. There is an enormous number of us co-funding these ventures while never using any of their services. If only those who are truly willing to pay up for NFL were to pay, they'd have to shell out thousands of dollars a year. Very self-limiting.

 

[RunningBum]

I'd much rather the NFL (and other leagues) start their own streaming services. People who want to watch NFL games can buy it, other's don't.

DING!DING!DING! Winner!

 

[Golden sunsets]

We dropped Spectrum cable a month ago, and signed up for Sling Blue at a reduced rate ($25) for the first 30 days. Sling worked OK, not flawlessly though, but does not carry the network channels and we don't have Locast in this market. We had regular interruptions (perhaps 4-5 per day), where the screen would go black for 3-4 seconds and then resume broadcasting. So we plan to sign up for Spectrum again at the new subscriber rate on Monday($128 for 100mbs internet + cable with DVR). When all is said and done our new cost for Spectrum internet and Select cable (126+ channels) will be $18 more than we paid for the cord cutting month of Spectrum internet only plus Sling Blue. It's worth it to us for bug free cable plus network channels.

 

[explanade]

I'd much rather the NFL (and other leagues) start their own streaming services. People who want to watch NFL games can buy it, other's don't.

I very much agree, but I doubt they could generate as much revenue that way. There is an enormous number of us co-funding these ventures while never using any of their services. If only those who are truly willing to pay up for NFL were to pay, they'd have to shell out thousands of dollars a year. Very self-limiting.

They don't need to.

All the networks are willing to pay whatever it takes to keep their pieces of the pie.

NFL games are huge ratings draws and helps promote their other shows.

NFL was looking to get double the amount of their previous TV contract and they seem to have succeeded.

 

[Cobra9777]

They don't need to.

All the networks are willing to pay whatever it takes to keep their pieces of the pie...

No one doubts the willingness of networks to pay for access to sports programming. The question is whether consumers who have little or no interest in sports will continue to purchase these heavily-bundled services... in effect, subsidizing the cost for true sports fans.

The high cost of sports is one of the main factors driving people away from traditional cable and satellite packages. I don't know why it would be any different with Peacock and Paramount.

I think it's an interesting question as to whether major sports programming could exist as a standalone streaming service, without the subsidies from non-sports-fans. How much would it have to cost? Would sports fans be willing to pay? Would sports have to transition to a lower cost structure? What impact would that have on the quality of the product? Would some smaller sports die out?