Cutting the cord - Cable TV alternatives

rburgess714

I have been a Time Warner now Spectrum cable customer for 6 years and Direct TV prior to that. My service includes internet which is really good and one premium channel. My rub is my bill is $222 per month and I don’t think it’s worth it. I am considering canning the tv channels and looking into Hulu or Sling. I do want local news, discovery and the history channel. Any thoughts on alternatives to cable?

rpf65

If I spoke Spanish, liked religious and shopping channels, I would be getting somewhere around 50 channels. I do get the same station on some channels, 3 channels called escape with the exact same programming, but it only cost the price of the antenna.

Personally not at home long enough for most of the year to subscribe to anything, but I can usually find something to watch. That will cover local channels anyway. Friend of mine did the same thing about a year ago, and finally decided that antenna and Netflix was her best option.

rooftop59

I do a combo of YouTubetv and a rooftop antenna. YouTube pulls in all four of the major networks, but NONE of the streaming services gets PBS. I use the rooftop for pbs and all the .2+ local channels, which I rarely use. YouTube is very good, closest to cable of the streaming options I have tried, including PlayStation Vue and Hulu (never tried sling). It’s also the best value. Yttv for $40 a month and 300 mbps internet for $40, hard to beat, especially with YouTubes DVR feauture which is excellent.

billbillw

DirecTV Now is another alternative, but it may have more channels and be more expensive than you want. The basic package is $40/month. It can playback on Apps for Android, FireTV, AppleTV and Roku as well as directly from an internet browser.

mantis

I tired figuring this out and what I came up with was keeping Fios for now. I removed all pay channels like HBO Starz which are basically useless except Game of Thrones when they air the final season I'll turn HBO back on or just get it from Apple.
My Internet and cable bill together is $167 per month. I use to be over $200.

EndersShadow

As stated we simply cut back our plan and went with DirectTV which dropped out bill considerably. Our issue is the internet portion is much higher and we can’t reduce it since we stream 99% of our content from Hulu , Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Plex.

If we cut our cable then they told us they’d start throttling our bandwidth and capping our limit, which is why we still have basic DirectTV.

We may try DirectTV Now so we can use our two Rokus and Xbox One to access the shows instead of needing boxes which we rent from them.

When we looked at just cutting cable we’d only be saving about 20 bucks a month and then hit our cap and have to pay overage so it was pointless to cut it right now.

joecoulson

If you have the ability to use an antenna then that’s the way to go, you can check to see if you can receive channels here:

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

I was able to mount mine in the attic and get all local channels from 60 miles with this antenna:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Antennas-Direct-C2-V-CJM-ClearStream-2V-UHF-VHF-Indoor-Outdoor-DTV-Antenna-with-20-Mount/30312147

Lastly I added a TiVo bolt to the mix. It allows me to record and have a guide and one unit for all streaming services. It does cost $15 a month, but for me worth it. Not necessary however.

At that point you can now add a la carte options back in like YouTube, hbo or any others that you want. Much much cheaper.

The one caveat is that you will be paying full price for Internet, especially if it runs to the cable company. They don’t give any deals to people who don’t buy all their services.But for me that’s totally worth it because I pay $70 a month for 100megs

rburgess714

Thanks all for the recommendations. I will be contacting Spectrum to decrease my level of service.

stangman67

I use direct now. At 40 dollars a month it has everything I want and need at a fraction of cable cost

Jimbo18

I have Spectrum. I dropped cable about 6 years ago, just internet from them. They have a streaming service for $20 a month where you can pick 10 channels from a pretty long list. Works pretty well, and you get the network channels in addition to the 10 you pick.

Not sure if the deal is still the same as when I signed up, but this link looks similar to the package I got.

https://hothardware.com/news/charter-tests-20month-spectrum-stream-live-tv-service

rburgess714

Jimbo18 wrote: »

I have Spectrum. I dropped cable about 6 years ago, just internet from them. They have a streaming service for $20 a month where you can pick 10 channels from a pretty long list. Works pretty well, and you get the network channels in addition to the 10 you pick.

Not sure if the deal is still the same as when I signed up, but this link looks similar to the package I got.

https://hothardware.com/news/charter-tests-20month-spectrum-stream-live-tv-service

That’s a great deal! Thanks

BlueFox

joecoulson wrote: »

Lastly I added a TiVo bolt to the mix. It allows me to record and have a guide and one unit for all streaming services. It does cost $15 a month, but for me worth it. Not necessary however.

I have the Bolt. What is the $15/month for? The Bolt? I got an unlimited use with mine for the purchase price. That was because I had previously canceled my TiVo service with my 2000, and they gave me the unlimited plan for an upfront cost. Forgot what it was, but it was acceptable.

billbillw

yeah, honestly I explored all this a year or two back. I live in a valley with no OTA reception. That is what limited me. Many years back, in a previous house I did get by with OTA (10+ HD channels), a Tivo box, and Netflix. Other than live sports, I didn't feel I was missing too much.

Now, without OTA, I tried DirecTV Now for a year, but since I have no option other than Xfinity internet, the price for internet alone plus any streaming package comes out more than a cable/internet package if you are smart about it. I still use Tivo so I don't pay comcast any 'outlet fees', HD fees, or DVR fees. My bill for 100Mbps internet and a decent cable package is hovering around $105. No premium channels.

The only thing is, you have to threaten cancelling (and mean it) every 1 or 2 years to keep good rates.

cfrizz

You still have to get your internet connection from somewhere, so what happens is you will end up paying a higher cost from the start for just that connection and it will STILL go up year after year until you are right back where you are now.

joecoulson

I guess I never paid for the unlimited sub. It was like $300+ and I wasn’t sure I wanted that.
As far as internet, I’ve been lucky and my internet hasn’t changed price for 5 years. $70 a month

rburgess714

Again thanks for the suggestions.

tonyb

Jimbo18 wrote: »

I have Spectrum. I dropped cable about 6 years ago, just internet from them. They have a streaming service for $20 a month where you can pick 10 channels from a pretty long list. Works pretty well, and you get the network channels in addition to the 10 you pick.

Not sure if the deal is still the same as when I signed up, but this link looks similar to the package I got.

https://hothardware.com/news/charter-tests-20month-spectrum-stream-live-tv-service

I didn't notice anywhere that said these were HD channels though.

Jimbo18

Not sure about HD. But here's a better link.

https://www.spectrum.com/cable-tv/spectrum-tv-app.html

Emlyn

I am another who decided to stick with FIOS. Got one of the bundle deals again for two years but with faster internet speed and new equipment all around including multi room DVR and better Wifi. Picture quality on TV improved as the boxes now do 1080p. Price dropped around $20 a month even with the upgrades. I also do not pay for premium channels since I have Amazon Prime and a couple thousand Blu Rays.

rburgess714

Well I did it, sort of. I terminated my cable with Spectrum and opted to keep their internet and go with their streaming service. New modem and router, all local channels and 10 cable channels plus 1 premium. No cable box or DVR but on demand programs and live tv. All for $107. Nice suggestion from Jimbo18.

rburgess714

Jimbo18 wrote: »

I have Spectrum. I dropped cable about 6 years ago, just internet from them. They have a streaming service for $20 a month where you can pick 10 channels from a pretty long list. Works pretty well, and you get the network channels in addition to the 10 you pick.

Not sure if the deal is still the same as when I signed up, but this link looks similar to the package I got.

https://hothardware.com/news/charter-tests-20month-spectrum-stream-live-tv-service

Thanks for the recommendation. I went for it and it’s great so far.

Jimbo18

Glad it worked out for you.

Mike Reeter

We had CenturyLink Fiber and their Prism TV, until the monthly bill went to over $200.

We've maintained the Fiber and tried DirectTV Now, but have moved on to Play Station VUE. A much better service all around and at a lesser cost.

Should have cut the cord a long time ago, just didn't want to give up the few channels that we enjoyed, between PSV and a cheap OTA Antenna, we get everything we like.

rooftop59

Unless VUE has improved a lot in the last six months, YouTube TV is a much better experience--especially re: the DVR and timeshifting--and is cheaper to boot...

Mike Reeter

rooftop59 wrote: »

Unless VUE has improved a lot in the last six months, YouTube TV is a much better experience--especially re: the DVR and timeshifting--and is cheaper to boot...

Will look into it, Thanks. The VUE offers a Guide and DVR Recording (at least better than what DirectTV Now had to offer).

rooftop59

The big advantage DVR wise of youtube is that whereas VUE has a 28 day limit, youtube is 9 months. I also used to always have problems with the time shifting with VUE, no such issues with youtube.

I also really like the layover live guide of youtube, never cared for VUE’s.

rburgess714

Yeah I guess the downside of the Spectrum service is no DVR but on demand access seems to meet my needs thus far.

rooftop59

rburgess714 wrote: »

Yeah I guess the downside of the Spectrum service is no DVR but on demand access seems to meet my needs thus far.

If it works for you go with it...I have just found that most on demand content includes a LOT of commercials, and I first got a tivo 15 years ago and said bye bye commercials. My kids are just blown away if we watch something live and they have to sit through the commercials. They young ones still ask why we can't fast forward lol...

K_M

cfrizz wrote: »

You still have to get your internet connection from somewhere, so what happens is you will end up paying a higher cost from the start for just that connection and it will STILL go up year after year until you are right back where you are now.

Yeah I was wondering that also!

rooftop59

cfrizz wrote: »

You still have to get your internet connection from somewhere, so what happens is you will end up paying a higher cost from the start for just that connection and it will STILL go up year after year until you are right back where you are now.

Not necessarily. They need your business and they know u can now get your cable elsewhere. At first I had to pay about $20 more a month for internet, but was still saving more than that on cable. Now i negotiated my cable back down to the introductory rate because I’m a longtime customer and threatened to leave. Now I pay $40 for cable and $40 for YouTube which is half of what I used to pay for cable and internet...

rburgess714

K_M wrote: »

cfrizz wrote: »

You still have to get your internet connection from somewhere, so what happens is you will end up paying a higher cost from the start for just that connection and it will STILL go up year after year until you are right back where you are now.

Yeah I was wondering that also!

Internet remained the same and has been for years.