Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[JoeWras]

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.

This is the question. I guess we'll ultimately find out.

The big sports leagues also have a problem with Millennials and Gen-Z. This group would be happy to watch sports on a phone and stream. Hence the push to get these on streaming services. But what is their tolerance for price rises, or rather the tolerance of the rest of the people subsidizing? We got Paramount+ not for sports, but for Star Trek (me) and The Real World (DW). Couldn't give a flip about CBS sports.

A lot of millennials I know are happy to watch people play games on Twitch. That's their sports. For $5 a month, my nephew would rather watch fake games on Twitch, versus the real thing on cable. He is not alone.

 

[MichaelB]

Here’s an update on overall cable subscription in the US from Pew Research. Looks pretty grim for the cable industry. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...s-dropped-dramatically-in-the-u-s-since-2015/

The share of Americans who say they watch television via cable or satellite has plunged from 76% in 2015 to 56% this year, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults. Some 71% of those who do not use cable or satellite services say it’s because they can access the content they want online, while 69% say the cost of cable and satellite services is too high and 45% say they do not often watch TV.

 

[Trailwalker]

When my wife retired this past December, I cancelled Hulu Live and went cold turkey, giving up tv sports. It just got too expensive and I can't get excited over millionaires playing games. I still like to play sports--just not watch them.

Thanks for the locast discussion. I was able to sign up today. Never even heard of it before. Currently, we have Paramount Plus (I'm a beginner NCIS fan with lots of seasons to watch) and Amazon Prime (because it pays for itself in deliveries for our rural setting).

 

[teetee]

Looks pretty grim for the cable industry. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...s-dropped-dramatically-in-the-u-s-since-2015/

That comparison shows the young mind did not like what is on cable TV, the older population also decreased but not as much probably because their old habit of TV watching and less involved in social media / smartphones.

Also the price increase for cable TVs affects young people more than the old ones..

 

[shotgunner]

Please forgive my question if it has been asked before. I have Comcast/Xfinity and I have been thinking about cutting the cord. Comcast/Xfinity is the only game in town where I live. They have a 1.2TB data cap on their home internet service. Have any of you exceeded such a data cap when you switched to a streaming TV service? I have sense Comcast/Xfinity has got you coming or got you going (additional $ for more data) in my area.

 

[JoeWras]

Please forgive my question if it has been asked before. I have Comcast/Xfinity and I have been thinking about cutting the cord. Comcast/Xfinity is the only game in town where I live. They have a 1.2TB data cap on their home internet service. Have any of you exceeded such a data cap when you switched to a streaming TV service? I have sense Comcast/Xfinity has got you coming or got you going (additional $ for more data) in my area.

I have not. I have not exceeded 0.5T.

It is just DW and I. We watch at least 2 hrs on one TV per night. Many days, more than that. We do not stream 4k. 4k will chew up a lot more. We do not leave the TV on constantly as "background noise." However, if that is your habit, use something like PlutoTV which streams in a pretty low resolution.

Our usage also includes a typical hour or two of radio streaming per day (XM online). It also includes about 5 hours of zoom per week.

If you have kids, expect a lot more. If you stream 4k, expect more. If you game a lot, expect more. If you haven't locked down your Wifi, expect more.

I'm giving you those details as a precursor to my usage stats I'm showing below. You can see a few things: usage went up when pandemic hit and we used zoom more, usage went up when we started streaming-only, and usage went up in December when I binged for the month on a free preview. My binge put us up to a solid 4 to 5 hours of streaming per day.

 

[JoeWras]

BTW, when I was thinking of going to streaming only, I asked this question on the old thread. See here: https://www.early-retirement.org/fo...ble-tv-2017-2020-a-87375-163.html#post2466930

A snippet or two of the responses:

You should be fine. Before going "back on the cord" we streamed exclusively...probably 4-8 hours a day (often TV is left on after going to sleep) and we never used more than 700'ish GB. We are also two person household, no gaming. Oh, and we are both home *all* the time and computer use is pretty heavy.
...
We use around 400GB/mo. Primary/night time TV is often 4K Netflix and Amazon. Plus miscellaneous other HDTV streaming via YTTV. And a fair amount of music and YouTube use, plus working from home.
...
Our usage/situation is almost the same as yours - 2 retired people, non-gamer, occasional 4K and we have AT&T 1GB mbps (just switched from 300MB mbps with the 1TB cap). We cut the cord relying entirely on streaming in Feb 2018, PSV then Hulu Live. We surf and watch more TV than we should, and we're averaging about 500GB/month - our highest month ever was in the 700GB range, so the 1TB cap hasn't been an issue at all.

 

[bbqcoder]

We have exceeded the data cap a couple of times. Currently cap enforcement is waived for the Northeast for the rest of 2021. If they do turn it back on, I’m leaving Comcast to go to Verizon. Cap enforcement is totally BS and not acceptable in my book.

 

[Midpack]

Please forgive my question if it has been asked before. I have Comcast/Xfinity and I have been thinking about cutting the cord. Comcast/Xfinity is the only game in town where I live. They have a 1.2TB data cap on their home internet service. Have any of you exceeded such a data cap when you switched to a streaming TV service? I have sense Comcast/Xfinity has got you coming or got you going (additional $ for more data) in my area.

We have a 1TB cap and we’ve never exceeded it, and our usage is much higher than JoeW. Two of us, a 3-4 hours a day on iPads/iPhones, a security system and at least 5-6 hours of HD streaming per day and we’ve never reached 800GB, we average less than 600GB per month. I even stream 4K occasionally. Unless you’re a 4K gamer addict, you’d have to have a bigger household full of power users to exceed 1.2TB in a month.

 

[bloom2708]

Our family of 5 with 3 teens has exceeded 1.2TB a few months.

Our cable provider has a 5TB data cap, so no issues. It really depends on how many TVs/Devices and how many people are streaming and how much.

If you get up at 6am and have the TV on for background noise and shut it off at midnight, you likely will use your 1.2TB.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

T-Mobile Customers Can Save $10 on YouTube TV and Philo Starting Today

This is in response to them shutting down their T-Vision service.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/t-m...ve-10-on-youtube-tv-and-philo-starting-today/

 

[JoeWras]

This is in response to them shutting down their T-Vision service.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/t-m...ve-10-on-youtube-tv-and-philo-starting-today/

A fantastic deal. I love Philo at $20. $10 is a no-brainer. Just read the fine print about 1-year.

 

[Momcpa]

Please help a very NON-tech person please !!! Facts: We have a Samsung TV. (non-smart). Have been using a Blu-Ray player to connect WI-FI so we can watch Netflix, etc. We would like to add a Roku stick or device so we can get rid of Directv and start with Hulu, etc.

Do we still need to use have a Blu-Ray to connect to internet? Or can we disconnect it and the Roku stick/device will be our internet connector by itself? I don't understand how this all works.

It's something we want to do ASAP as the Blu-Ray player is starting to get stuck in a "loop" of some kind and isn't working correctly. I'd appreciate an answer soon from those of you who thinks all of this is easy ......I don't understand it !!! Thanks everyone.

 

[pb4uski]

If you get a Roku stick you can use that to access Netflix, Hulu, etc so unless you have a continued need to view Blu-Ray disks then you can ditch the Blu-Ray player. We still have our Blu-Ray player but we haven't used it in years.

The TV connects to the Roku stick and the Roku stick connects to your home wi-fi which in turn connects to the internet.

 

[SmallCityDave]

Please forgive my question if it has been asked before. I have Comcast/Xfinity and I have been thinking about cutting the cord. Comcast/Xfinity is the only game in town where I live. They have a 1.2TB data cap on their home internet service. Have any of you exceeded such a data cap when you switched to a streaming TV service? I have sense Comcast/Xfinity has got you coming or got you going (additional $ for more data) in my area.

We went over a time or two and always had to keep an eye on the data, we are a family of 4 but I'm the only one that watches TV.

 

[Momcpa]

pb.....Thank you so much for that prompt answer. Your last sentence really helps me understand how the whole thing connects and works together. I'm a CPA (before retirement), so I know numbers but I don't claim to understand how anything electrical or technical works together. Thank heavens for those of you who do !!!!!

Thanks again.

 

[Yoheadden]

Please help a very NON-tech person please !!! Facts: We have a Samsung TV. (non-smart). Have been using a Blu-Ray player to connect WI-FI so we can watch Netflix, etc. We would like to add a Roku stick or device so we can get rid of Directv and start with Hulu, etc.

Do we still need to use have a Blu-Ray to connect to internet? Or can we disconnect it and the Roku stick/device will be our internet connector by itself? I don't understand how this all works.

It's something we want to do ASAP as the Blu-Ray player is starting to get stuck in a "loop" of some kind and isn't working correctly. I'd appreciate an answer soon from those of you who thinks all of this is easy ......I don't understand it !!! Thanks everyone.

I’ve never had a Blu-Ray device and recently switched from a Comcast bundle to Roku. We went with the Roku Ultra because we wanted the voice control on the remote. There are definitely cheaper Roku options and with the search feature that Roku has, I’m not even sure the voice control is worth the extra money. It is a pretty easy setup once you get your device as pb4uski has mentioned.

 

[RonBoyd]

There are definitely cheaper Roku options and with the search feature that Roku has, I’m not even sure the voice control is worth the extra money.

Voice Control is, of course, a "must have" feature for many people -- DW, for instance. We have both a ROKU Ultra and a FireTV Cube (with Recast). She finds it less confusing to simple say "Go to Animal Planet Go" or "Go to FS1" or "Go to FS2" or "Go to channel 31 dot 1" without struggling through the menu system. In the case of the FireTV Cube, she doesn't even need the Remote.

I am personally partial to the FireTV Cube because it allows us to, for example, answer the phone (video calls, for instance) or answer the door bell or adjust the lighting all without getting up.

(FWIW, a Webcam is plugged directly into the FireTV Cube so video calls are viewed on the 65" TV rather than the awkwardness of a cell phone.)

 

[JoeWras]

I don't typically use the voice feature for controlling the Roku. After all, I'm a guy.

However, I find it very useful for searches. For example, pulling up youtube, I may want to search for "Do I have enough to retire?" It is real easy to use voice for this. The Youtube app on Roku knows how to access the remote mic. (Not all apps know how.)

 

[Chuckanut]

However, I find it very useful for searches. For example, pulling up youtube, I may want to search for "Do I have enough to retire?"

I asked mine that. It sent me to the local FIREstone dealer.

 

[RonBoyd]

I asked mine that. It sent me to the local FIREstone dealer.

 

[YB88]

(FWIW, a Webcam is plugged directly into the FireTV Cube so video calls are viewed on the 65" TV rather than the awkwardness of a cell phone.)

Last I heard, Fire Cube could only do calls to various Echo devices (i.e., 'drop in' sort), and not use Zoom --- as had been promised back in September. Is that the sort of video calls you're talking about, or are you managing to use other technologies for video calls on the Fire Cube? (Zoom, Google Meet, whatever)

 

[RonBoyd]

Last I heard, Fire Cube could only do calls to various Echo devices (i.e., 'drop in' sort), and not use Zoom --- as had been promised back in September. Is that the sort of video calls you're talking about, or are you managing to use other technologies for video calls on the Fire Cube? (Zoom, Google Meet, whatever)

Actually, both parties only have to have the Alexa App installed on their phone. After that, the two people can connect with any Amazon device... or all at the same time (including the cell phone, Dot, FireTV, Echo, etc.).

I was pretty sure, I had seen an article a few days ago that said that Zoom was now available with the FireTV devices (including the Cube). However, I wasn't that interested since I have only used Zoom once -- as a test run not an actual meeting -- many months ago. And, worse yet, I can't seem to find any evidence there was such a notice.

This may be relevant (I don't know that):

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360000164106-configure-alexa-for-zoom-rooms

 

[bltkmt]

I just cancelled our YoutubeTV after a few months. For $65/month we just weren't using it much other than for live sports. I imagine I can find a cheaper streaming option for that.

 

[REWahoo]

I just cancelled our YoutubeTV after a few months. For $65/month we just weren't using it much other than for live sports. I imagine I can find a cheaper streaming option for that.

^ This is one of the primary benefits of cutting the cord. The ability to drop a streaming service at any time and not be tied to a commitment of more than a month at a time can be a significant money saver and offers great flexibility. The first quarter of this year we spent a total of $24 on streaming (no sports except OTA) and never lacked for something we wanted to watch.