Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[Gumby]

We're starting new versions of our long running threads so that they'll load faster on phones. Here's the link to the 2017 - 2020 version. https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f54/update-on-cord-cutting-cable-tv-2017-2020-a-87375.html

 

[Sojourner]

I don't usually browse the forums on my phone, but starting a new thread for 2021 seems like a good idea.

As for cutting the cord, I'm pretty sure this year will be when I finally take the plunge. I just can't see continuing to spend $70-80/month for DirecTV considering how little I watch it. Most of my viewing these days comes from Netflix, HBO, and Amazon Prime. All three of those combined are less expensive than DirecTV.

 

[Freedom56]

Starting 2021 with the following paid services:

Locast (58 local channels/23 HD)- $60/yr donation
CBS All Access - $60/yr
Peacock - $60/yr
Disney+ $68/yr
HBOMax - $14.99/mo
Philo (63 cable channels) $20/mo

Average $50.65/mo

 

[Midpack]

We dumped Dish Network satellite in Feb 2018 when the price went to $96/mo. Still hanging on with Hulu + Live just recently went from $54.99 to $64.99/month, 65+ live TV channels and a huge on demand library (more timely than most others). And we have Apple TV+ free for a year, some very good content, though not sure if we'd pay. If it wasn't for live sports (many types), we could probably go to all on-demand. I watch free YouTube more than "TV" anyway. DW will NOT fuss with an OTA antenna or anything that requires changing input sources. I pick my battles...

 

[Gumby]

I'm ditching cable TV this month. I don't watch TV and the young wife only ever watches Netflix or Prime. We'll keep the internet for that.

 

[JoeWras]

I'm ditching cable TV this month. I don't watch TV and the young wife only ever watches Netflix or Prime. We'll keep the internet for that.

Welcome aboard.

 

[euro]

I'm still preparing for the "ditch" while eagerly watching the crews pulling in fiber cables in the neighborhood!
Just set up Amazon Recast with an OTA antenna. Works like a charm - can't wait to pull the plug.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

My total subscription cost is $7.50 a month.
I have Locast until they finish the digital upgrade in my area and then I may not keep it any more, we'll see. I only watch KTLA even though I get close to 50 other Los Angeles antenna channels with it. It is well the $5.50 a month donation.
Hulu Basic $1.99 a month for a year Thanksgiving deal.
My daughter has Peacock and gave me her password, I've only watched Yellowstone.
She also gave me Netflix password, I gave my subscription up over a year ago and have never missed it but I am watching The Crown right now and then probably won't use it again for ages.
My son gave me his Disney password, only used when the grandkids come over. I also have his Prime Video but don't use it either.
Pluto TV, The Roku Channel and my antenna are my most used services and they're free. I just don't watch that much TV although it's turned on to ABC Locaiish or Laff channels most of the day just as background noise.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I posted this last night on the 2020 page, do I get a prize for being the last post
What does everyone think of the recent update to the TCL Roku TV guide. They have incorporated all the free live streaming TV channels into what was the Antenna TV guide and renamed Antenna TV to Live TV on the home screen. To view it, Home screen-live TV-left arrow click next to ok button. If it comes in Spanish don't panic, the 1100 channels at the end are Spanish language, just scroll down and your antenna channels will come up first followed by free streaming TV channels 115-1100+. There is a lot and if you hate it as many do you can turn it off. I like it. There was such an uproar on Facebook Cordcutters last week, everyone thought their TV was broken and swore it was broadcasting in Spanish, it was just the new TV guide.

 

[JoeWras]

What does everyone think of the recent update to the TCL Roku TV guide.

Dunno. Got a 2012 era Panasonic Plasma with a Roku stick. But I get your point, the TCL Roku is very popular. Maybe someone else will comment.

In general, streaming does have to become more integrated and standardized. Too much babble right now between the services.

The Chromecast w/GTV tries to do this a bit, but apparently they had a little war with AT&T and ripped out the HBO Max integration into the unified guide. So even though some of it is technically possible, the for-pay content providers have turf wars over any such guide and want payola in return.

 

[pb4uski]

Starting 2020 in Florida... Xfinity basic cable ~$40/mo included in HOA fee. That includes basic Peacock since Comcast owns NBC but we upgrade to ad-free Peacock for $5/month and add $10/month for DVR service while we are in FL (we turn off the DVR when we are away for the summer)... so ~$600/yr for that property.

Starting 2020 in Vermont, OTA with Fire TV Recast.... cost of $0. Since Xfinity is in our Florida HOA fee year round, we can use those Xfinity credentials to watch HGTV, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Network, etc. using TV Anywhere apps...but a separate app for ech network is a bit of a PITA. We may supplement the OTA with an inexpensive streaming without live tv package like Philo or Sling... we'll see.

We also get Prime Video as Prime members so $120/yr for that.

We flip back and forth between streaming packages, typically upgrading to ad-free if available. We currently have BritBox ($7/month) but have had CBS All Access and Hulu in the past.

So right now, annual cost is ~$800/year for 2 properties with year-round access to BritBox, Prime Video and Peacock at either property.

 

[gcgang]

Our TV is a Samsung, smart TV, about 7 years old. It used to connect to our Netflix and our daughter used it for X-box.

I’d love to cut cable, but now am unable to get the TV to connect with the internet. My 19 year old, home from college, downloaded an update but couldn’t get it to work.

Other than buying anew TV, what do I need to do?

 

[Cobra9777]

We're starting 2021 with YouTube TV, Netflix, and Prime. We also have access to Hulu on-demand and Disney+ via DD's subscription. She logged in once when she was here and we just continue to use it.

We also split the cost of YTTV with DMIL who lives nearby but is part of our Google "family group." Evidently, YouTube makes no effort to enforce the requirement that everyone live in the same household.

She's really the only reason we still have it. She's 86 and watches a lot of traditional TV programming, especially this year since she rarely leaves the house. She's comfortable with YTTV and we just don't want her to have to learn some new system every 6 months as things evolve in the pay-TV world.

As for me, I mainly watch free YouTube. I subscribe to about 60 channels related to all the things I love learning about... woodworking, home improvement, cooking, history, linguistics, science, music, and travel. I even use it for PBS NewsHour every evening, either live or whenever I get around to it. The only thing I watch on all these pay-TV services is sports, mainly baseball. And now YTTV dropped our local Fox RSN.

 

[Morgan22]

What does everyone think of the recent update to the TCL Roku TV guide.

I do like that they added all of the channels, and you can hide the ones you won't watch. BUT, we now have a problem with our antenna picking up the wrong channel. Channel 15.1 is coming through as channel 15.3. It's really annoying since 15.1 is NBC, but 15.3 is a local channel. Hoping for a fix soon.

 

[Cobra9777]

Our TV is a Samsung, smart TV, about 7 years old. It used to connect to our Netflix and our daughter used it for X-box.

I’d love to cut cable, but now am unable to get the TV to connect with the internet. My 19 year old, home from college, downloaded an update but couldn’t get it to work.

Other than buying anew TV, what do I need to do?

Get a streaming device like Roku or Fire TV. I don't know anybody who actually uses the "smart" part of their smart TV.

 

[Ready]

I wish I had another source for high speed internet other than Frontier FIOS but that’s really our only option. So if I unbundle the internet from the cable TV the cost of internet goes up to the point where the incremental amount I’m spending on the TV portion is about the same as going with Hulu or YouTube.

 

[Happyras]

I am a newbie to this and we have a bonded DSL connection at 12Mbps. We have Direct TV and a large property. I beam the internet across to the barn, and down the road to the gate and all works well. We are paying $140/mo for DirectTv. We have two Fire cubes and use Netflix, Prime, Locast, Foodnetwork via internet.

Two problems;
I paid $1500 for an RV HD DirectTV antenna to use while we are on the road. It works well, but we have not really used it more than twice this year. I would like to maintain this for travel in our camper.
Our barn has an apartment with a separate dish, and our adopted son from Mexico has his spanish channels (mostly soccer) on DirectTV, but has a good internet as well.

Does anyone maintain Direct TV, and simply put it on vacation until they use it? We have 4 DVR's and 1 HD receiver on DTV and should likely reduce it down, but I like my TV in the bathroom, the media room, the kitchen and the barn. The guest bedroom could go.

 

[pb4uski]

Our TV is a Samsung, smart TV, about 7 years old. It used to connect to our Netflix and our daughter used it for X-box.

I’d love to cut cable, but now am unable to get the TV to connect with the internet. My 19 year old, home from college, downloaded an update but couldn’t get it to work.

Other than buying anew TV, what do I need to do?

You could connect the tv to the internet using the streaming device like a Fire TV stick or Roku or Apple TV.

 

[pb4uski]

I wish I had another source for high speed internet other than Frontier FIOS but that’s really our only option. So if I unbundle the internet from the cable TV the cost of internet goes up to the point where the incremental amount I’m spending on the TV portion is about the same as going with Hulu or YouTube.

Is the Frontier TV offering better than YTTV or Hulu with live tv?

 

[pb4uski]

Get a streaming device like Roku or Fire TV. I don't know anybody who actually uses the "smart" part of their smart TV.

+1 the one smart tv that we have we use a Fire stick on

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Our TV is a Samsung, smart TV, about 7 years old. It used to connect to our Netflix and our daughter used it for X-box.

I’d love to cut cable, but now am unable to get the TV to connect with the internet. My 19 year old, home from college, downloaded an update but couldn’t get it to work.

Other than buying anew TV, what do I need to do?

Easy to diagnose. Buy or borrow a Roku or Firestick device and plug into an HDMI port and run set up and hopefully that will probably fix your problem. If my smart tv stops being smart that's what I will be doing but I do have to say, I love this TV and it was so cheap 3 years ago. Occasionally it acts up, I've had a frozen green screen, no picture for 2 nights just in Hulu and Netflix and then it fixed itself on the 3rd day when I checked it. Usually powering off and on resolves these things but sometime you have to do a complete reset.

 

[Midpack]

Get a streaming device like Roku or Fire TV. I don't know anybody who actually uses the "smart" part of their smart TV.

We did for at least 6 months, my way of introducing streaming to DW. And I have a Samsung TV, their Smart TV interface worked well enough, even the browser - clunky but it works. But I’d agree users would want a Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV or the like once you get serious about streaming.

 

[explanade]

Well my 1-year Comcast deal runs out. Will have to see how much the bill goes up.

I'm hoping for Verizon Home 5G. Then I will try something like Youtube TV.

Verizon is advertising the service a lot out here but my address check doesn't show it's available for my house.

 

[jdunc31]

I am sure this has been covered but new thread, new year---repeat questions!

Does anyone know if a steaming service offers the Fox Sports Regional Channels? That seems to be the step holding us back from cutting the cord....

 

[JoeWras]

I am sure this has been covered but new thread, new year---repeat questions!

Does anyone know if a steaming service offers the Fox Sports Regional Channels? That seems to be the step holding us back from cutting the cord....

It's grim. Sinclair has turned up the heat to 11. The services are not balking. It is war, and we are civilian casualties.

You CAN subscribe to AT&T Now, but they are pricey. Also, AT&T Now has fought with RSNs in the past. No guarantees they won't drop when the contract is up.

Yes, this is a big problem for cord cutters. There's not enough lipstick to put on this pig. Some cord cutters with blinders will try to blow this problem off. They'll suggest pirate sites and such. Sorry, cord cutting cultists, this sucks.

When hockey starts in two weeks, I'm going to start with radio listening. Not sure where this will shake out. If I get hockey withdrawal DTs, I may do something rash... Oh, Sinclair is talking about their own service. But it is vaporware right now. And who knows what they'll want per month? Could be a crazy amounts.