Cord Cut (Cable cancelled) - suggestions wanted

YouTube TV.  Best option hands down.  Their DVR option is king.  I get all the Michigan sports.

Keep in mind that with streaming you will be using more internet data, so you may need to upgrade to a higher data cap level, possibly faster speed, too.

This gets asked so regularly, it should be a sticky. The answer is YTTV, though there is no Bally. 

Welcome to the beautiful world of being able to tell your ISP to fuck off. A VPN for less legitimate means of streaming is a must for me, but that depends on your views on the topic. I have friends who use hulu TV or YouTube TV instead, but i can't vouch for that personally. I have a VPN, streaming services, and knowledge of where to find the stuff that isn't covered by those. 

Agree with Catchafire. Just terminated WOW and went with YouTubeTV. Use Firestick to control tv. No more cable boxes. Can watch any channel on any of my devices. Huge VOD selection (but you have to sit thru commercials.  You can skip thru commercials on stuff you record). And yes, Hallmark is included. 

I like hulu. Think it's like 70 a month or so. I forget. I haven't missed a michigan game. Got disney+ and ESPN+ with it for dirt cheap to. 

Fubo

I went with Hulu several years back and have been quite happy.  I think most of them offer free trials, and/or are quite easy to cancel, so you may want to experiment.

Comcast now has an app which can be used on any smart TV for $20/month.  This gets me everything I need for sports etc. with not problem.  They do require you to use their internet which is OK I guess. Not the cheapest internet, but not bad. I pay $55/month for their mid-range internet. Add in Netflix and Amazon Prime video and I’m at around $100/month. I used to pay around $160/month with traditional internet. 
 

The one complaint is that the Comcast app is not very user friendly compared to the traditional cable box  

Not a big TV watcher either aside from Michigan sports. 

My parent's cable bill was skyrocketing so I set my parents up with YTTV as their "cable" and  they are very happy with it.   

I just use the same account to stream to a chromecast for games or the occasional other live tv things we want to watch in our house  Works great.

To do it this way, I do have to login my device once every 3 months on their network due to the restriction for "travelling" devices.   One person is the google "family manager" and then everyone else's google account falls under that.  Each person can maintain their own DVR recordings, favorite channels, etc. which is nice.

One underappreciated thing about YTTV:

You can share your subscription with five “family members.” Technically, they’re supposed to be in the same household. But as long as you share it within your own viewing area, it works without a hitch. If you share it outside your viewing area, there are some necessary workarounds. But overall a good perk. 

Tried them all, and YouTube TV was the best for what I needed. My kids wanted Disney+, so they have jobs and pay for it. Also, have Netflix, but find myself watching it less and less due to the unlimited DVR space on YouTube TV. Then there's Amazon Prime which is excellent for movies that are not on Disney+. Almost forgot AT&T gave me HBO Max as part of my cell phone package, which I rarely watch. However, my absolute go-to when I'm bored is traditional YouTube.

Even with all of them, I still pay about half as much as I did for cable and have WAY more options, and outside live sports, I never watch commercials. If I had to cancel all of them but 1, I'd keep YouTube TV.

Cut the cord years ago and couldn't be happier. I stream YouTube TV during football season and basketball season. I'll be canceling on April 5th and starting back up on Sept 3rd. I watch peacock network and regular YouTube during the summer.

Lol. I’d cut the cord completely if my wife watched Hallmark movies. Might even go full Teddy K and move to a shack in Montana to get away from that.

YTTV for me as well in Toledo area, use a local Satellite cable provider and get about 50/mbps download, YTTV, work computer, kids on Youtube, wife watching TV and all works well. YTTV is $69/month, I was in the same boat as my wife wanted Paramount network for Yellowstone so I switched from a smaller provider. A lot of my TV's are Roku, and YTTV app is finally back on Roku devices. 

You can also download the Roku App on your phone and control any TV in your house if you're all on the same WIFI.

Blow up your TV throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own

Just ditched cable 2 days ago ..my bill was getting ridiculous($380). Got you tube tv $65 and $80 for WiFi. I believe we have a couple more stations. So happy we finally made the switch.

we have HULU.  it goes month to month so you/we can cut it off and use it only for college football season. no contracts needed.  it was $49/mo, but has bumped it up to $65/mo in the 4 years we've had it.  still worth it, though we only watch sports with very few exceptions. 

cable is not available where we live, only satellite and i hated direcTV as much as you all hate cable.  

I have Hulu Live TV and I love it. I think Youtube and Hulu basically take turns being the better deal. 

Vidgo got bad reviews, but honestly it worked very well this season for me and was a little cheaper than the other streaming alternatives. Plus it came with and didn’t have to pay extra for BiG10 network. It also came with every other conference’s network as well. Download Peacock for NBC and CBS sports for CBS games and you will have all the college football you need. 
 

Had Comcast and RCN for 10 years and went to YTTV and will never go back. Ever. It is superior in every way. Beautiful UI, awesome suggestions, best in class DVR and tons of 4K content (if you pay the extra for it). 

Hulu Live works well for us. Every MI game, every one. They've just announced the additions of Disney+ and ESPN+. About $70/month. You'll want decent download speeds (at least 200). Includes the ability to record 20 hours with Live.

The user interface could use a bit of work but it's moderately tolerable.

Went with DirecTV Stream because it’s the only streamer that has Bally’s. I think it’s $89 a month and my out-of-state daughter can also use it. Very user-friendly. 

Wish all college sports was pay per view. Here take my money, stick the adds up your ass (want to know who gouges their customers the most? Hint they are running college football ads) and the rest of live broadcast tv can die a slow death. 

There is always that one person in the house that is the lifeline to the cable companies. "But I dont want to lose my......"

We do hulu. I pay like 65 a month.  My father has Amazon Prime and Netflix. We share passwords 

Great, great decision, imhe. I completed my undergrad almost 40 years ago, in Fall 1983. I have never ever had cable TV personally. Do the math:  if I had cable for 39 years, at an average of $100 a month, I would have saved $47,000. At $200 a month, the savings would have been $94,000.

Now, full disclosure:  I've had Netflix for several years. Big whoop:  maybe $500 total. I've had Paramount plus for a year:  my son pays for that, but another $150.

As for your question of how to watch football, remember that a bunch of games are on ABC. And others are on Fox. Generally, it is only lesser games that are on BTN. I live in suburban Chicago, and over the air (OTA) reception for NBC, ABC, WGN, PBS, and Fox is all perfect, and CBS is usually good. Not only is the broadcast clear, OTA is usually 4K, unlike cable which is often compressed. On the rare occasion that I really want to watch a game telecast on BTN, I head over to a friend and fellow alum's house maybe a mile away. And I always bring beverages and snacks . . . small price to pay.

For basketball games, and some hockey, I'll head to a local bar and catch the game. For the price of a couple beers, and one of the best hamburgers in the area, I can easily enjoy the game.

The only remaining thing I'm trying to figure out is the best OTA DVR to buy. After I have that, I will start watching games 60 - 90 minutes after kickoff, and skip through interminable ads and most of pre-game and halftime.

I'm just not enough of a rabid NFL and sports fan to truly need to have ESPN and coverage of all games everywhere all the time. And the reality of about $75k more in my pocket makes the loss more than worth it.

Crack your firestick and install Kodi, 19.4 then you will need to install a GUI called Xenon..

Can literally watch any live TV that you want anywhere in the world.. Mad Titan Live app allows you to go into it and either watch every sling channel possible or you can search manually and just pick what channel you need.

Also get anything on paperview live and for free lol

People that have YTTV and Hulu TV, what do you do for local sports (Bally Sports)? Looks like if I wanted to watch the Pistons or Tigers I can’t ditch cable or satellite. 

Can't reply direct to the local question. I live in East idaho, we have no local sports lol. But it offers local channels. I admit I only record like a couple shows and watch michigan only on it. Nothing else. One nice touch is if internet is out, it still records your games to watch. I can use my phones data and still watch live to. I can't look into local sports though, we have nothing here.

Honestly, Michigan is usually on broadcast TV.  Living in Cali, at least half the games are on local ABC.  Sportsurge net is a good streaming site, also, swatchseries is a good site for your regular TV needs.

I'm on YouTube TV and very happy.  Unlimited DVR set to record all Michigan sports.  I think it includes Hallmark

I have had both YouTube tv and FUBO.  Both are good. 

Been on YouTube tv for a couple of years with the only complaint being no Bally. Hasn’t been so bad with the Pistons, Tigers, and Red Wings having been so bad but as they all look to be getting better hopefully there will be a streaming resolution soon.

I cut the cord in 2015. Hulu live used to have all the sports I need. Since then it dropped fox sports Detroit (now Bally sports?) so no tigers wings etc, and has doubled from $35 a month to $70, while continuing to lose programs  to other services. sadly streaming is getting just as expensive as cable with less to offer.

Just go with YouTube TV and don't look back.  You're welcome.  

I cut the cord a few years ago and have tried several services.  I loved Playstation Vue before they went belly up.  I have since had Hulu TV, YouTube TV and Fubo (Currently).  If your wife wants Halmark, Fubo is the best (only) option and while you don't get the unlimited DVR you get 1000 hours.  Prices are pretty comparable between all 3 at around $70.

I am enjoying Fubo and my wife appreciates not having to try to watch her Halmark movies on the app that doesn't carry most of the new/live stuff.

I live in an HOA neighborhood(I know) and the entire community has xfinity in with the monthly hoa payment. I believe they offer a streaming app separate from the actual service(mine is included) and I haven't had any issues with it. 

I had Youtube TV before living here and had to cancel because I already was paying for cable. My only complaint is that it became the same price if I wanted to start service with xfinity on it's own, as I think its about 70$ now. I know that's a ton less than the 240 you were being charged which is ridiculous to be paying. It was so great when it was only like 30$ a month. 

I use directv stream.  Not having Bally's for local sports isn't an option for me.  I don't like the interface but I've learned to live with it.  I also don't really care about having the absolute cheapest option which some seem to be obsessed with.

I'm feeling like this thread pops up at least once or twice a month. Maybe there should be a diary or one of these threads needs to get pinned.

I have the Prime membership (which then lets you get movies and free shipping which easily pays for itself if you buy a lot of shipped products from Amazon), Hulu, Netflix, Disney + and Paramount and I have the fastest internet possible (through Cox cable) and pay a little over $220 and couldn't be happier.  My internet fee is the biggest of all that but I want fastest internet for streaming.  Hulu is the biggest cost here stream service wise but it's because I pay for local channel access too which is clearer and better than my HD antenna in my attic.  Also I just installed a mesh router (Orbi) and it totally changed my household streaming.  Not cheap but the coverage and speed made a big difference along with installing a newer Motorola DOCSIS 3.1 modem.  The equipment you use for streaming can be important as well.

Why DOCSIS 3.1?

• Coax cable. Supports faster downloads compared to fiber cable.
• Reduced packet latency. Improves voice quality for VoIP calls and online gaming experiences and streaming

If I had to choose one service (obviously you have to have internet) it would probably be Hulu (has Big 10 Network) or YouTube TV (even though I don't have that I understand that to be a great option as a few friends use it and love it).

I have not had cable for about 4 years now.  Unless it when to under $100 I doubt I would ever go back as there are no contracts with the above mentioned services I use. 

Like others have said, YTTV. Yes, it's overpriced, but you can cancel anytime, unlike cable. I don't watch BB, so for me I have YTTV only during football season.

Starry (ISP) + YTTV + Netflix (shared) and we  save >$40/month over comcast, plus no need to do the 6-12 month phone call to comcast to negotiate the "low intro rate" 

Easy choice for me is YTTV  if only because of unlimited DVR. 

But like Switch26 mentioned,  Kodi with a Diggz Xenon build (Highly suggest a VPN and Real Debrid) gets you all the content ever made and its an easy a 30-60 minute DIY effort.  

I have no other need for live tv/cable in my house, so honestly I just stream them online with sportsurge. for the 10-12 times in a year i care about it, i don't feel any guilt at all. come at me, fbi.

but if you want to pay for something, i agree with everyone else that it's yttv

I used to use PS Vue until they discontinued. Now I use YouTube TV and they are great. I just have a little concern they will discontinue one day too.