Cord Cutting update / thoughts

I've cut the cord and now stream sports events on FoxSportsGo or WatchESPN (someone else's account).  I don't have many buffering issues, but one thing that IS the case is that my video feed will be ~ 30-60 seconds behind a "landline cable TV feed."

Which means I (1) can't follow a message board game thread too closely, and (2) need to actively avoid text messages.

At first, I didn't anticipate that being too big an issue.  But it's bigger than I thought it would be.

I cut the cord over 18 months ago. Although my provider did shut my cable off, they forgot to shut off the internet access to the cable packages. So i've been streaming sports and the movies packages through the apps still. 

 

I was paying like $96 in Traverse City to Charter for internet and cable with one box (the rest run the Charter app off of Rokus etc) for around a year.  The promotion expired and now it has crept back to around $130/month.  Switching to YouTube TV will save me around $25/month.  I'll probably cancel Charter after the NCAA Tourney and start up with YouTube TV to for football season.  I'll save a few hundred.

I remember when these threads would pop up from time to time and certain individuals would dig themselves in trying to argue that saving money by cord cutting was impossible.  Good times

I could never do it. I have Dish Network and love it. It also has the four screens in one picture-in-picture feature, which is fantastic. My big television is 80", so the feature works great for sports. The amount of free on-demand content is also very extensive. I like having the DVR. I don't like the idea of relying on streaming, which is more delayed than satellite.

EDIT: I'd like to add that any company that has data plans for HOME Internet can fuck off. I know those dick wad companies are taking the route of cell phone companies with data plans, but it's still absurd to me. I once had Cox for Internet. When I signed with them, there were no data plans. At one point, I noticed I was getting charged for overage fees. I wondered what hell that was, so I called them. They said I went over my data plan. Well, I was never informed about the change nor given the option to even choose a plan. I canceled them shortly thereafter and got WOW for Internet. Their service is better, cheaper, and no data plans exist. There should never be dta plans for home Internet.

Woof, your Internet options suck. I've been streaming for years. First with SlingTV and now with DirecTV Now. Since AT&T owns DirecTV and I have wireless service with them I get HBO free.

I pay $100 a month for 300 megabit service through Comcast now but when we move in to our new house I've got gigabit fiber already set up there which is $50 a mo for the first year and $70 thereafter. No caps for Comcast or the local fiber company currently as well.

I cut the cord from DirecTV a couple years ago, and I'll be going back to it in the fall.  If you're a die hard sports fan, especially if you're out of market from your favorite teams like I am, it's too much work to constantly find out how to watch your team when DirecTV makes it so easy with all of their sports packages.  Also, like a lot of people here have mentioned, DirecTV will usually give you some random discounts if you tell them you're thinking of cancelling.

I know this probably read like an advertisement for them, but I'm just realizing how much I miss their service after a couple of years. 

5G is going to be the answer. Verizon is rolling out unlimited internet access and YouTube TV for under $100 month using its millimeter wave spectrum which is in 30 GHz range. I am not convinced that will propagate well enough to be useful as it will require direct line of site between towers/small cells and home antennas.

Sprint owns hordes of 2.5 GHz spectrum which propagates much, much better. Unfortunately, they don't have the dough to build it out. If Uncle Sam approves the T Mobile/Sprint merger I believe the new company will be everyone's TV provider of choice five years from now.

I also live in West Michigan and would recommend you change to Xfinity (Comcast). We pay $40.00 / month and have had no issues with them for seven months. I do not think we have unlimited, but I honestly would be shocked if you exceeded their cap. We haven't yet and we consistently have something streaming most evenings.

We currently feed off of my in-laws cable subscription, so we get most sports channels. But if they were to discontinue their cable, we plan on going with PSVue and the package with their sports was about $45.00 - $50.00 if I recall. So we would pay $90.00-ish a month for sports and then whatever other subscriptions you want (Netflix, Hulu, etc.). I will say I have heard spectacular things about YouTubeTV and Hulu Live as well.

Also, when we had AT&T for internet, it was the worst internet I have ever had to deal with. So I would drop them simply based on that.

I also live in West Michigan and would recommend you change to Xfinity (Comcast). We pay $40.00 / month and have had no issues with them for seven months. I do not think we have unlimited, but I honestly would be shocked if you exceeded their cap. We haven't yet and we consistently have something streaming most evenings.

We currently feed off of my in-laws cable subscription, so we get most sports channels. But if they were to discontinue their cable, we plan on going with PSVue and the package with their sports was about $45.00 - $50.00 if I recall. So we would pay $90.00-ish a month for sports and then whatever other subscriptions you want (Netflix, Hulu, etc.). I will say I have heard spectacular things about YouTubeTV and Hulu Live as well.

Also, when we had AT&T for internet, it was the worst internet I have ever had to deal with. So I would drop them simply based on that.

I finally cut the cord and I'm pretty happy with the choice, but I'm not sure how sustainable it is long-term. The regular price for Verizon internet for us would have resulted in no savings (or a loss), but because my name was on the contract and not my wife's, we were able to get their "new customer" deal for substantially less by having her sign up. We'll see what our options are in two years.

Second, we use DirectvNOW for streaming because it comes with almost all the channels we want. HOWEVER, it is not perfect, and there is always a delay with sporting events, which means I can check the internet and find out what is happening in the game before I see it.

So....I like it, but it's not a no-brainer.

You're getting charged for the amount of data? Sounds like a cellphone plan and not an ISP. I'd start with finding another ISP that charges based on the data rate, not the usage.

RCN here in DC offers first-timers their fattest 1000Mbps pipes for $50/month. Combine that with a moderate Playstation Vue package for another $50 (which includes cloud-based DVR) which includes local network content + BTN and that's your basic plan for $100/mo.

Slap on your Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu movie streamer of choice for $10-$15/mo. Now you're cooking with gas for under $120/mo. pre-tax.

Have had psvue for a couple years now. Works great. I ran a direct Ethernet cable to my router and it streams perfectly. Only thing I don’t like is the price has gone up a couple of times but it’s still cheaper than dish and no contract. 

Was thinking of switching to YouTube tv but it doesn’t work with amazon fire tv and tv sticks which I have on all of my tv’s. 

Perhaps I am spoiled, but I live in Kansas City, the original "Google" city.  We run Google Fiber and YouTube TV.   Have never had an issue with buffering.    Sometimes the Roku resets itself mid game, but that takes like 30 seconds to reboot.   Has saved us about $80 a month since switching from ATT Uverse.

Google Fiber has made all the difference with connectivity...

If you have ATT, they have cheaper options, I had internet and uverse and was paying $180 a month, then I stwiched to internet and directV now ( internet streaming cable) and pay $100 a month, so saving $80 a month and can watch TV anywhere from the app on my phone

I pay $40 for Hulu and $65 for 300mb internet.  

I find navigation to be much easier with Hulu than cable.  Also you get all the on-demand stuff.  Another benefit is it seems much more mobile than cable or uverse TV.

In one provider markets, like most of Kansas run by COX cable, prices are ridiculously high. For basic cable I was paying $100.00 ( no sports except ESPN) plus $50.00 for high speed internet. I switched to Hulu but my internet price went up to $80.00. I went from $150.00 to $110.00 and ended up getting a lot more channels, including the Big 10 network for myself and HGTV and the Food Network for my wife.

Cord cutting is only worth it to save significant money, tv/internet provides better service but locks you into contracts and costs more. If the costs will be roughly equivalent you should stick with the better service that gets you more. 

I just went through this. ATT contract was up and they tried bumping me up. Went through a whole ordeal and they wouldn’t budge. The last straw was them telling me my rate would increase if I dropped HBO. I dropped tv and they of course bumped up my internet cost. I’m currently waiting for google to install and will drop att altogether. I went with Hulu live. It’s $50 a month and has everything we watch including Big 10. I’ll prob save about $20-$30. Not bad but I realized how great it has been to not be tied to a “package deal” or “promotional rate” from a cable company. I downloaded the app to all my apple TVs and am good to go. I can watch whatever I want on any tv without a giant box. It has worked great so far. I can easily cancel or make changes without having to call and go through 9 prompts. No more “promotional rates” where my bill goes up 40% and then I have to call and get it down but still end up paying more. I love it. The wife is a bit mixed on it though. She is a flipper and that isn’t too easy to do with an Apple TV remote or the app. I’m sold though when google gets my internet installed, I hope to never have a cable tv package ever again. 

I cut the cord about a year and a half ago after having directv for over a decade and generally being happy with the service they provided. Because of that I didn't have a bundle discount with my internet and was paying about $120 a month for tv alone. I went with the amazon fire cube, already had amazon prime, and hulu live. For me that translated to a one time cost for ~$150 for the cube and ~$45/month for hulu live. I was able to watch every Michigan football game while living in North Carolina. I recently stayed with a friend that had directv and after having hulu for over a year at that point found myself dissatisfied with directv and couldn't see myself going back even if I wasn't saving ~$75/month.

I have cable. I have a shit ton of channels. Life is good. I live very lavishly. 

The value of cord cutting is highly situational. IOW, saving money depends.

There are also a shit ton of technical variables that affect the quality of your home entertainment/TV viewing experience..... like, how old is your router and your home network devices, your TV, do you have copper wire or optical cable from the companies distribution box to your home ..... and that's just a handful of them.

Unless you are paying for a separate service/box (e.g., Hulu) that has the rights to stream, the BTN, for example and you've paid for whatever package that contains it, you have to have a cable service provider log in (how you get that is your business) to receive the BTN broadcast.

For example, Roku is a piece of hardware (not a streaming service) that allows you to wirelessly stream content to your TV via an existing internet service. It costs around $100 give or take. If that's all you have in your cord cutting adventure, you turn on the device/TV, click on the BTN icon at the home page, and a page inviting you to log in with your cable service provider appears. IOW, you have to have some level of cable TV service and have purchased a package that contains the BTN to stream content via Roku. 

There are options for streaming content directly to your TV on an in home wireless network with internet access alone. Hulu is an example of that but Hulu, the company, knows about price points and this service comes in a shade lower than what you might pay for basic cable TV.  Direct TV is another option but I don't think a lot of folks are paying $60 for it as one poster says he does.

Buffering: Maybe you get it maybe you don't. Two things: First, the broadcaster has server limitations. If the server can't handle viewer demand, it will buffer at your end. Second, if you're in home network - wireless or ethernet - is crap, you'll buffer. If your internet cabling into your house can't handle the required data rates, you'll buffer (optical >>>> copper wire). A short while ago, ESPN's servers were awful and I experienced buffering of popular sports programming. They've fixed that or at least I'm not buffering anymore with ESPN sports.    

Here's my experience with cord cutting in both Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale: In Atlanta I have an OTA antenna on my roof that feeds my 3 TVs. From this I get all the major broadcast channels (ABC, FOX .....), PBS and about 90 other channels most of which I never watch. They come to my TV in very high Quality HD when the program is broadcasting in that mode (better than cable but that's another discussion). I have the second tier Xfinity package that feeds my wife's 2 other TVs and has the channels (e.g., HGTV and DIY Network) that she wants. I have the Blast version of Xfinity's cable internet service and optical cabling from the Xfinity source in my neighborhood to my house distribution box.  I have a single Roku unit on my primary sports watching TV and stream what I need sometimes having to log in with my Xfinity UID/PW to do it. My cable TV/Internet bill is $139/mo.

In Florida, I have a just about everything package from Xfinity and the same internet service I have in Atlanta. I use ChromeCast on my ChromeBook/TV to stream. After negotiating the shit out of my Xfinity bill as best as I could (and you have to do this and keep doing it at every renewal of what ever deal you got - and go inot a brick and mortar store to do this if available, screw the phone), my Cable TV/Internet package is $175/mo. Just so you know, the zip codes I live in - both in FL and ATL - don't have the BTN. I stream it using my Xfinity log in.

While I think cord cutting is a neat concept, it is not the be-all-end-all for getting the entertainment you want to get into your home. Savings can be marginal depending on your situation and it can be somewhat complicated. Not for everyone.  

I cut the cord in December of this year, I went with Direct TV Now.  Initially I was saving about $75 each month due the fact that Direct TV Now is cheaper than comcast cable and this was with more stations (added HBO at $5/month and an third stream $5/month).  My problem is the internet data limit, I had the fastest net speed possible from Comcast but my monthly limit was 1025 GB/month which I went over in both January and February.

Now I have upgraded to unlimited internet data, cost of $50 more each month.  At the end of the day, I save about $25 dollars each month over having Comcast cable bundled with the internet, which is basically the receiver rental fee that I paid for two of the TV's.  I have had to adjust my surfing methods, there are no more channel numbers, only names in alphabetical order but it has been good for us.  I find the picture quality to be better with Direct TV Now for some stations, Comcast must have been limiting the bandwidth for some channels

The negative, I do not get the local NBC channel out of Grand Rapids (I live in Kazoo), so I need to switch over to a digital antennae for programming on NBC.  Of course i get South Bend and Grand Rapids on the HD antennae.

In the end I feel like I'm screwing Comcast and that makes me feel better.  If I were to drop to a basic Direct TV Now package ($35/month), I could really save some money.  I'm taking baby steps  right now.

I was a long time advocate that I would keep cable/satellite. I had DirecTV with Sunday Ticket and had ATT internet bundled with that. Bills were pretty expensive ($180 DTV + $60 internet, and up about $80 a month when buying Sunday ticket months). I'm sure I could have negotiated down, but I hate having to deal with that stuff. 

I finally went through in December and did a massive comparison of the speed of what was available from most major streaming provides compared to what I wanted. In general, most had all the main channels I watched aside from BTN and access to NFLRZ, so I selected based on that. I chose PSVue, and I've been very pleased. No issues with quality at all, gets me all the channels, DVR, etc.

It's not *significantly* cheaper than my previous set up, but I also have no real change in terms of what I do. I significantly upped my internet speed (Xfinity 400) because I wanted to for gaming (even if overkill), so that cuts into my savings a bit, but I'm still paying about $50-$75 less per month without any real impact at all (and way faster internet). Had I gone with a cheaper plan, savings could be more.  Also, I have a 1,024 MB cap as well and don't hit it, FYI, so you may not need unlimited.

I easily could pay the extra money (and was for years). It's only been 2 months, but I am very pleased with the decision. After adjusting to the UI I don't notice any impact at all. Quality of service is just as good as DirecTV, if not better (and definitely better when it rains...).

The only con I have is the slight delay from live TV by about 15-20 seconds. Not a deal breaker for me but is definitely a con.

1. Get a different internet provider. Those prices are absurd
2. Get YouTube TV

I do Internet + YouTube TV for $85/mo. I could probably get rid of YouTube TV altogether because you can Chromecast anything from a Chrome Browser onto a TV, and everything can be found on the internet.

The wife and I are considering switching to Youtube TV after GoT finishes up. Our current Xfinity package includes HBO so we're willing to hang on for another couple of months until that finishes up. That's really the only thing we watch on HBO aside from the occasional documentary. 

Xfinity has been great, hardly ever have service issues, but there's only a handful of channels we watch anyway (maybe 5-7 with any semblance of consistency), so we're paying for so much crap we never watch. We'd end up getting the exact same channels with Youtube TV, and pay $50-$60 less per month. 

From how it sounds, Youtube TV will get us the sports packages we need, get us BTN, which we don't currently have, I get TBS and TNT so I'm covered for March Madness, all the basic cable outlets, AMC and FXX. Outside of Netflix/Prime, that's 95% of what I watch anyway. Looks like maybe the only one that's missing that we watch is Comedy Central. 

I can get over not having South Park. 

Spectrum cable internet ($66/mo) and YouTube TV ($40/mo) here.  I tolerate Spectrum -- I liked them a lot more when I was paying $39.99 a month -- and haven't had problems.  I've been extremely happy with YouTube TV.  No quality issues, the unlimited DVR with no hardware is fantastic, no cable boxes (another fun hidden charge with cable), cancel whenever.

If I lived in an area where I could get OTA signals I might not pay for TV, but since I don't I do.  A much better experience than hunting for streams or dealing with Spectrums's pricing/bundle BS.

Current setup is PS Vue Ultra package (includes Showtime and HBO for $15/month and all sports channels) and WOW! internet (includes unlimited streaming, no data caps like ATT, Verizon, or Comcast) --> $120/month (can get substantially lower with the core packages)

Stream through Roku Ultras for the 4K TVs and sticks for the other TVs.

No cords, no bulky hardware, no contracts, no buffering, no outages (like dish during storms).  Can watch live TV through the app on all my devices, unlimited DVR.

Absolutely love it.  Way better than cable.

$50 to $75 for an Abox on Amazon and never pay for TV again.  It takes a little time getting used to the searching process and managing add ons, but for the savings.... its well worth it.

I also get every ppv free gratis 

I have PlayStation Vue (which is not really cord-cutting, since it's still a multichannel video programming distributor). I'm more or less happy with it, but there are drawbacks. It's not quite as dependable as traditional cable and satellite; every now and then it buffers, skips, pauses randomly, and does other sorts of weird things. 

Another frustration is that most of these services have wonky user interfaces that are confusing and difficult to navigate. They're trying to re-conceptualize the way people watch TV, but it's actually just annoying. I think the move towards streaming is a good thing, but I think that for traditional TV programming, they ought to keep the interface of the traditional TV-watching experience. When I watch TV, I like to flip around and see what's on the various channels, and it's far easier to to do that by hitting channel up and channel down on my remote than messing around with on-screen menus and sub-menus. Applying a Netflix-like browsing UI to traditional TV broadcast programming simply isn't working. 

Having said that, I like the convenience of being able to watch TV on any device I want just by downloading an app. I like being able to DVR stuff directly to the cloud and accessing it from anywhere. I like the fact that I didn't have to sign a contract and don't need any special hardware. And if I decide I don't like PS Vue and I want to give YouTubeTV or Sling a try, it's easy to switch; all I have to do is sign up for an account and download a new app. That's why I stick with it and put up with the annoyances. 

Random hot take, but if one has to chose between two "evils"  - UVerse and XFinity, I think Uverse is way way less shitty.  

My God, what on earth do you feel you are missing out on by not completely cutting the chord and just living with internet connectivity?

I haven't had cable, Direct TV or any of that shit for YEARS. Never been happier.

I watched all of the 2019 Michigan football games this year in HD on CFB Reddit via internet connection. No issues.

I find most television programs and commercials today unbearable.

Those of you who still have cable TV, direct TV subscriptions at all, what on earth are you spending any of your valuable time watching?  Serious question. And don't tell me sports.

1024 GB/month is likely WAY more than you need, unless you stream in 4K or are constantly downloading torrents. 

I cut it 2 years ago more for spite than anything else.  I was so sick of the cable company treating customers like shit.  I had just had enough.  The internet is really the kicker.  I had the first year at $40/month, but now am up to $60.  I add Playstation Vue for another $40/month as well, so I'm at $100 total.  That still saves me about $35/month, plus once football season is over I drop Vue and add Sling TV for $30/month the rest of the year.  One day I will drop the internet all together because it's a huge waste of time and bad for everyone's mental health, but I'm not there yet.

I have a 55" Roku TV by TCL from Amazon for $375, great TV!  It has a lot of free movies and shows already built in to the Roku.

I pay $14.55 a month for Amazon Prime which includes their streaming movies and shows, along with 2 day free shipping on all orders.  I share this account with my GF who has the Fire TV at her place. We order several items per week minimum.  That is a steal of a price.

I pay $12.95 or something like that for Netflix. GF shares that with me but I pay.

Monthly internet is $45, and my company pays half of that.

I have a digital antenna for local channels.

I stream all sports events that I can not get otherwise via the internet, on pirate streaming channels and send that to the big TV via an HDMI cable for FREE.

So $72.50 - 20 that my company pays, = $55.50 for high speed internet + tons of streaming, 2 day shipping on all Amazon.

This is the best time ever to be alive, in history of the world.

I save about $50/month with DIRECTVNOW.

Before I had DSL (slow!) and satellite.  The DSL forced me to have a landline as well.

After, I have a cable pipe, DTVNow, and ported the rarely-used landline to Google Voice, which is free.

I have never missed anything I want to watch.  I'm not a TV person  besides live sports and business channels in the morning, but nobody else in my house complains.