How do cord cutters watch Michigan games?

Submitted by rockediny on

MOD EDIT - BUMPED BECAUSE THIS WILL COME UP TODAY TOO - LSA

I just had my first cable companies suck experience and now know first-hand why people hate them so much. I recently started a graduate program and currently have a basic cable package that includes no sports channels (roommates set this up before I moved in). This obviously sucks because I only watch sports on TV. I know there are several cord cutters here on the board so what are some affordable ways yall catch M games? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Also, have basic sports channels always been a premium service like HBO? That doesn't seem right to me.

EDIT: Thank you so much guys! It seems PlaystationVue is the best option for me. I'll pitch it to my roommates to see if they want cancel the cable (not contracted). I'm getting it regardless but if we share, it'll be cheaper for all of us.

reshp1

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:18 AM ^

1) You need internet either way

2) You might be able to get cable for the same price but it'll be an intro price and you'll have to sign a contract which means when they jack up the price later, you're stuck. They also hit you with taxes and fees. With Vue and Sling, you can go month to month and it's out the door pricing.

Muttley

September 2nd, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^

There are some switchover fees and you have to schedule your time to meet the cable guy, but in my experience that pays for itself in a month or two.  Then switch back the next year.

I pay $134/mo all in for cable w/ a reasonable set of channels (BTN, no SEC; Espn1,2,News, U but no classic; TCM, Movies!, this!, AMC, but no FXX; History Channel but no American Heroes; etc), decent internet speed, and a landline (wifey won't cut).

The cable rep was a tool, he promised discounts that didn't show up and weren't verifyable on our online order until after we had switched.  So there's the annoyance factor you have to overcome.  I'm willing to look at cord cutting options (as I understand it, Vue requires the purchase of a PlayStation--that wouldn't get much use), but all in all I'm "good enough" w/ cable for now.

The Mad Hatter

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:41 AM ^

that actually likes cable.  I recently switched to U-Verse.  $135 per month all in for a ton of HD channels, total home DVR, wireless boxes, and pretty damn fast internet.  If they jack up the price in 2 years like WoW did, I'll just switch again.

I have a fire stick / Netflix too, but I like the simplicity of cable.  And I actually think that it's a pretty good value considering the amount of content that's provided.

Then again, I still pay for music too, so I'm something of a dinosaur.

ijohnb

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:48 AM ^

too.  There are not too many of us left, and I suppose I will change eventually to save money.  I am just a classic channel "flipper."  Some of the only time I get by myself is very early in the morning or very late at night, and it is not uncommon for me to have a game and two movies going at the same time.  Additionally, we use it three rooms and it is very common, during winter especially, that we have all three TVs going at once.  The simplicity of the cable product still appeals to me enough to fork over more than I really should for the content.  And there are a literal shit ton of free movies available for my kids whenever they want.

reshp1

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:48 AM ^

I pay $85 for 90% of the functionality of what you listed between internet and Vue. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against cable, it's just not worth the money anymore with the options available. I miss the seamless cable experience, especially when feeds drop out or buffer, but $50 a month saved turns into a nice chunk of change at the end of the year. 

uncle leo

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:53 AM ^

Is fantastic. I paired it up with a Roku smart TV so last night I was flipping between Watch ESPN for the Jared Donaldson v Troiski tennis match and the Appy State game. It's all good. I NEVER trust the stability of pure internet services. No matter how high your DL/Upload speeds are, streams will always have moments of cutting out/buffering. 

I always hear the cutting cord stuff, but you pay for both the internet and whatever streaming service you use, and at the end of the day are probably saving 30/40 a month. For me, that savings is not enough to make the justification. 

ABOUBENADHEM

September 2nd, 2016 at 10:24 AM ^

I ditched Comcast cable 5 years ago and would NEVER go back.  The weather only very selodm affects the sat signal, and Direct TV caters to sports viewers by adding a number of extra channels for sports events like the Masters, etc.  For $100 I also added an auxilary HD antenna in the attic and if the weather is bad enough to disrupt the sat signal I just switch the input mode over to the antenna.

UM Fan from Sydney

September 2nd, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^

Yup. I have to have cable. The DVR is necessary. I am paying dish $115 a month with a three-year price lock. I started with them earlier this year. Better than DIRECTV. Their DVR is better and it has the four screens on one monitor feature, which is perfect for football.




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johnvand

September 2nd, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^

Also the glory of Sling is that I can just log in to my account and add/remove services ad hoc without having to talk to some sales rep who is reading a script to try and sell me shit I don't want.

I added the $5 sports package to my Sling last night once I noticed the Tennessee game was close in the 2nd half.  In under 2 minutes I was watching SEC network and didn't have to speak to a single person.

This is the way these services should work.  Hopefully the likes of Sling and Playstation Vue push these caveman thinking cable companies into the 21st century.

softshoes

September 2nd, 2016 at 11:02 AM ^

Something to be said for that. I have DirectTV and added HBO for Game of Thrones. I did that online at the web site, took 5 minutes and I was watching.  Come time to cut HBO you can't do that online. A 40 minute phone call got it done. Bunch of shit.

johnvand

September 2nd, 2016 at 10:16 AM ^

I just moved and Charter wanted to charge me (their promotional rate) $150 per month for Internet + Cable on 3 TVs.  That was the "holy shit" package that had about 400 channels I'll never watch.  They wanted $110 for their "basic" package on 3 TVs.

Just internet was $40 for the promotional.  I usually only get the $25 Sling package during non sports season.  I'll up it to the $45 for the next few months.  And I can watch it on 4 or 5 devices for no extra fee like cable.  And I can watch it on any device unlike cable.  I don't need a crappy power hogging cable box unlike cable.  Couple Chromecasts and I'm good to go.

I'm probably going to check out Playstation Vue as well.  Their $45 package gets you BTN.

HD antenna + Tablo makes it so you can DVR and stream OTA TV to all devices in your home.

There are some large up front costs to cord cutting, but once you go about 5-6 months, you get into the black.

reshp1

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:15 AM ^

I had Sling last year, it was pretty meh. The $20 only gets you ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN News and ESPNU require an add-on pack. Also, no BTN, which is pretty important for B1G fans. Plus the performance was attrocious (Roku, Andriod, PC all were bad)

Playstation Vue was prohibitively expensive last year, but they really stepped up their game. The $35/mo base package gets you all the ESPN channels (including SEC Netwok) and BTN and FS1, FS2. They also have pseudo DVR functionality, which is a must have IMO. 

LJ

September 2nd, 2016 at 10:02 AM ^

I have Vue on the FireTV and it is great.  With comcast's cheapest internet package (20 bucks!) and the middle tier of Vue, I pay 55 bucks and get all ESPN, BTN, Fox Sports, and basically everything I want.  And the 10mbps internet handles it no problem.  Incredible deal.  I'm just waiting for the Vue price hike; it's too good to be true right now.