OT: Cable TV

I had satellite tv for almost 17 years and switched to basic cable a little over a year ago because I was paying for channels I never watched and to cut costs and I'm still paying for channels I never watch albeit I'm paying less. I'm tired of paying for TV and I'm close to dropping cable and using a rooftop OTA antenna and streaming whatever I can snatch for free off my laptop but then my internet will go up because i have it packaged with TV. It's like Vegas, they have you coming and going.

I have not had traditional TV service for the last 5 years or so. I get Netflix and my daughter gets Hulu and we swap sign in codes. I get my weather and news and traffic off of the internet which is bundled to my land line. I have AT&T fiber optic. So my cost for everything is $76/mo.

I switched to Directv Now last year. All the channels I ever watch and HBO for $55, no contract. Great thing is when I'm out of the house or travelling, I have all of my TV channels with me at all times on my phone/laptop/Amazon Firestick. Granted its still a cable company owned service and I'm only saving $30 a month vs when I had both cable and internet througb Comcast, but I like the freedom of it.

This is one of the better threads. If not for some local sports games, I’d ditch cable. Even then you can still see many games on prime time TV, so eventually I’ll be cutting the cord!

If you have roku(good if you want the NFL ticket without directv) or something like that check out Sling TV, I love it easy to switch up the packages as there is only two and you can add premium channels if you want. I use it and have netflix and amazon video since I pay for amazon prime. Get a hd antenna for local stuff and sports and you are good go go for under $50 a month.

There are several Internet-based pay TV services available, and the number is growing as a few streaming services, like Hulu, are now offering live TV packages.

AFAIK, the following options are all that is currently available for internet-based Pay TV Services:

• Sling
• PlayStation Vue
• DirecTV Now
• Fubo TV
• Hulu
• YouTube TV

I ditched cable a little over a year ago. Every time my rates would go up, I would call to negotiate a deal, but the cost wound up being a little bit higher than the previous agreement. It got to the point where I decided to cancel altogether. I did, however keep my internet service and I had a subscription to PlayStation Vue to watch TV. After a few days, I noticed I was having buffering issues using the PlayStation Vue service on my TV. My internet speed is 50 megs, which should be fast enough for streaming. It seems most internet providers purposefully slow down your speeds because they are pissed that you won’t pay for a cable and internet bundle. I did not have any issues with slowdowns when using the PlayStation Vue service on a laptop or smartphone, though.

I eventually cancelled my subscription to PlayStation Vue, because even though I was paying less than I would for a cable subscription, I was still paying for channels that I don’t watch. I will not subscribe to any type of Pay TV service again until they give us consumers the option to build a bundle of only the channels that we want to watch.

I currently get over 40 channels OTA from an antenna. The only thing on cable I was watching was sports. I decided it would not be all that bad to follow Red Wings hockey and Tigers baseball by listening to the radio broadcasts, which are free. I can also watch highlights and condensed versions of a game the next day, which is also free.

Does anyone here have any experience or knowledge about Hotwire, my HOA is switching to that service in a month as soon as our Comcast contract expires.

I love my Sling TV...get all the sports channels I need (even the regional sports channel with the local MLB, NBA & NHL teams) for $40 a month....the price of two lap dances! But you do need a smart TV or Roku to make it all work. The high school kids working at Best Buy explained it all for me.

For me, I checked out all the alternatives and I thought they sucked.

I have a national popular cable company which is my only choice where I live (aside from sat dish). I went to Reddit to look for options and low and behold, my cable company has a sub on Reddit where people post and they will redo your billing.

For internet and cable (all the good channels but I lost HBO, Skinmax and Showtime) I pay around $160 a month after taxes. Before negotiating it was up to $250. Yes fucking $250. That was for 2 of those little HD boxes and 1 DVR. I even have my own cable modem so I wasn’t charged for that.

It’s fucking sick. 2 years ago my bill was $148 and I even got all the premium channels.

I’ve still got cable. I keep saying that I’ll cut the cord - but I never do. I have the basic package - no add ons. I don’t watch much.

At work we recently (with the Indians Home Opener) got Sling TV 'blue' ($25/mo). We just a desktop computer with a triple monitor card to pipe the output to HDMI to 3 TVs at work. It's just for (fox) Sports Time Ohio, which is available on Sling TV's 'blue' package. There's a couple TVs in the common areas and one TV in employee lounge / eating area.

I wouldn't buy it for my own use, but it was the cheapest way I found to get JUST the baseball games on just than channel. We also use an OTA aerial to get 40 or so channels (CLE) similar to s275ironman.

Second the use of Roku. Cut cable several years back and never missed it.

If you have AT&T for cell phone service, DirecTV now is a great option because you get a discount and HBO is free.

Here's an idea: don't watch TV.

What FTS said.

SJG

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At home, we cut the cord years ago. The only way I have found to keep the costs down, is to go without channels/content. Otherwise the bill just ends up being similar or within thirty bucks.

We use a combination of netflix (about $10/mo) and hulu, with the Showtime add-on for hulu ($16.98/mo). Showtime gets me boxing events or old boxing matches. I watch one about every Sat night. Occassionally I watch netflix with the Mrs but netflix and hulu is mainly for her. You really don't really any sports with it.

I also get MotorTrend On Demand for $5/mo streaming. It gets me some car shows but alot of that stuff is also free on youtube (Roadkill), but one 1 week or 1 month delay.

Plus like 40 channels OTA, many 1080p, using an aerial for free. For DVR I use a home-built Linux computer with TV capture cards and TV tuner card in it.

Out sports compromise, other than boxing, is to get 1-2 MMA PPVs a year ($35/each), one boxing PPV every other year ($99), 1-2 live minor league hockey games (less than $75-all-in for tickets, parking, beer, one concession for one game for the two of us), 1 major league baseball game after ticket demand drops following the all-star break, plus we watch Formula One racing over OTA using an aerial.

The wife and I tried Sony's Playstation VUE for $35/mo. I never watched it. It had mostly the same channels you'd get via Satellite or cable. The Mrs thought it was a poor value, even though she could watch her sports, but it wasn't thirty-five-dollars-a-month cool. So we canceled after 2-3 months.

We tried Amazon Prime but I found it overlapped too much with netflix or hulu so I didn't see the point. We only had that for 2-3 months.

So for now it's netflix + hulu + showtime + motortrend for about $32/mo altogether. :)

+1 FTS. :)

can't build income and wealth if you're spending money and time watching TV.

^^^^ can't do much continuing to educate yourself either.

SJG

^_^

I have never subscribed to any cable service.

Before I was married, I never even had a television.

Now after married, yes we had one. We would also rent lots of videos. I saw that as the alternative to cable.

For the future, I would see a 'video system' as being computer centered, where one monitor serves all purposes.

SJG

Also, the idea that you can economize and 'invest' yourself out of the wealth gap, is largely a mind fuck.

SJG

@ime: How do you get NFL Sunday Ticket on Roku?

You can download it as an app on roku then you just sign up for it online. Its still expensive but much cheaper than going to watch games at a bar.

I’m currently experimenting with an Amazon Firestick and two programs called Terrarium and Kodi. I’ve also got Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. Once I get an OTA antenna I’ll probably dump cable and just get internet. Biggest downside is buffering. I fucking hate buffering.

You tube tv with a Chromecast and my Google home device. I just tell Google home what channel or show name I want.to watch.

UI doesn't have good fast forward or rewind capability, though

Cable is very low value. YT TV is quite good and offers a la carte pricing. There's a good chance all of these 3rd party TV services go the route of cable years down the line but right now, they are better value than cable

I guess you could just go to Best Buy on Sunday’s in the fall - and watch the games there? In the home theater section they usually have a comfy sofa!

A member of my family switched to Roku and loves it. Cheaper and the variety of content is just as good as cable.