Have you gotten around to cutting your cable TV? Or are you still overpaying?

[PeaceWave]

At my urging and with my assistance, my brother is finally cutting his cable TV service. Instead, he'll be using a streaming box I hooked him up with and one of the streaming TV services. In the process, he'll be saving $110 per month or $1320 per year. What is left of the cable TV industry is reliant on revenue from folks - most of them older - who simply don't know how to make the switch. If you haven't already, do it. You'll never look back.

[Onthefly]

1. We cut the cord a year ago.

Do not miss it.

[kimbutgar]

2. I pay $180 a month for Dish so your cable is a lot cheaper!

[GoodRaisin]

10. The satellite services aren't different from cable in the sense

both business models charge high monthly prices for alot of channels you never watch. Satellite is on the same trajectory with cable.

[Timewas]

3. Yes

Actually dropped them quite a while ago and just use smart TV and a great reliable fibre internet to get whatever entertainment I need at no extra charge..

[lamp_shade]

4. I did and saved $195/month. Internet only - $40/month. Sling and Netflix on my daughter's account. Life is good.

[PeaceWave]

9. I love it. A shared TV account is definitely the way to go if you can. Well done!

[SheltieLover]

5. Cut cable over a decade ago. No tv service at all & I'm happier for it

Zero tolerance for liars & idiots.

[mwmisses4289]

6. Cut it a few years ago.

[Skittles]

7. yeah but - streaming is becoming cable

they want you to pay extra for EVERYTHING

[GoodRaisin]

15. Yes. YTV, DTV, Hulu Live being like the content of

cable/satellite with high monthly price for a lot of channels you don’t watch. Sling is similar but offers partial packages. The real cord cutting savings comes from going true ala carte and purchase the apps directly, such as Netflix, and there are a lot of free apps such as Tubi/Pluto have a lot of the older stuff.

[Skittles]

21. I don't fall for any of that extra stuff

it's all a bunch of bullshit that will eventually turn up for free

[GoodRaisin]

24. Me either.

Right now I’m just paying for one premium app and my fiber internet to stream. I also watch the free apps and YouTube premium.

Don’t need 105 channels. Who can watch 105 channels anyway?

[Skittles]

25. what kills me is

is many of those same people watching 100's of channels will claim they have "no time" to exercise

[xmas74]

8. Cut it a decade ago.

I have Netflix, I get Peacock free with my Walmart+ (I know but it's either that or Amazon-very little variety local and most things need ordered). Sometimes I'll pick up a service when it's on sale, such as i was able to get 12 months of Starz if I paid $24 up front for the entire year. (I figured at $2/month I'd find something to make it worth it.) I watch lots of YouTube, Tubi, Pluto, etc since they're free. My library has memberships for Hoopla and Kanopy free for it's members. I also stream archive.org on my TV and I have an antenna.

[PeaceWave]

11. I started this thread because I when I dropped off my brother's old cable box for him...

I noticed that almost every customer in the store was elderly. I said to the customer service rep, "It looks like none of your customers know how to cut their cable. He literally chuckled and said "No. They don't have any clue." Before I left the office, I overheard one old guy saying to another customer service rep, "Well, I guess if I can't do any better than that, then I'll just stay with my $295 plan." What an effed up business model...simply preying on primarily elderly customers who don't have the technical know how to cut the cord.

[mcar]

12. Cut the cord about 12 years ago

If we need live TV, we can glom onto my son's YouTubeTV.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. We've dropped WOW! for terrible service and ever-increasing prices. Haven't found an alternative yet.

All the streaming services want auto-pay -- meaning you give them your card no. and they promise to charge you only what you signed up for -- as if I believe they'll get that right every time.

I never want to have to deal with an overcharge from a company that expects to take what they want and maybe they'll get it right.

You're right about legacy customers -- my mother can't really handle even an OTA converter. It takes two remotes, and she can't keep straight how to use them differently. So I kept putting off cancelling cable, but WOW! will only provide cable service if you also have Internet service. We get faster Internet from AT&T fiber and were paying for an internet service we didn't use anymore just to get cable ! I never could find a streaming service I actually liked, so put off dropping cable, but it was just wasted money, so we finally dropped it.

I strongly suspect I'm never going to like streaming just because the remote interface is so awful -- tiny little graphics that I can barely see at all clearly and, in the examples I've seen so far, no useful organization whatever except to push the channels they want to sell you for the highest price. And then that hunt-hunt-hunt-pack-repeat with the cursor! MUCH easier to push two numbers and get the channel I want on cable.

[PeaceWave]

14. If anyone builds a better streaming remote control, they'll be an overnight billionaire.

[Big Blue Marble]

16. Cut the cord in 2013.

Bought an over-the-air antenna and a Roku. Never looked back.

[highplainsdem]

17. Got rid of cable several years ago when it was about to increase to $140/mo. Got a Roku device for

less than $30 and an indoor HDTV antenna, also for under $30. With the antenna I have two each of ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, plus Fox and the CW, and dozens of subchannels with them. Lots of free streaming TV, both news and entertainment, with Roku, and I occasionally pay for a premium channel, most often when they're offering a discount.

https://therokuchannel.roku.com/

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Seems Rather Judgmental

No, we haven't switched.
Yes, we know how.
Pretty presumptuous to believe that the choice is rooted in ignorance.

[PeaceWave]

23. It's all good. You do you. If you ever do need assistance though, give a holler.

[newdeal2]

19. Streaming is the better deal for now

But if you have multiple services, it starts approaching cable prices.

[Ms. Toad]

20. Never paid for cable in my life.

We're down to basically no TV since the analog to digital switch. Too far from the repeaters to pick up much of anything, and I refuse to pay for anything I should get over the air for free.

[flvegan]

22. Not just cutting cable, but most streaming.

If it's not free (either as-is or because of bundles/promotions), I don't really use it. Unless you pay/pay extra, for most, it's too many ads to be worth it (just like cable, oddly enough).

[LearnedHand]

26. Yup back in 2007

Netflix and Amazon Prime were the ONLY 2 streaming services back then.

[Liberal In Texas]

27. We bought this house in 2001and never hooked up cable.

We had a Netflix DVD subscription when that was going. Bought a Roku and stream shows and movies from different services. If I want to watch MSNow or CNN or something, I can find somewhere to stream it on a computer for free. Local news can be had off the air with an antenna. We're also watching some old shows we like via complete series sets on DVD.
I also have a sub for Sirius/XM since Texas radio stations - with the exception of NPR and the Classical station - are crap.

Cable? We don't need no stinkin' cable!

[wcmagumba]

28. I haven't had cable for years...I get Amazon Prime Video at a discount because of my discounted Prime membership...

I occasionally subscribe to Netflix or some other streaming service like Peacock but on a month at a time basis if there is something I would particularly like to watch. I have an indoor antenna that gets about 50 stations from the nearby metro area. So I have plenty to choose from, I also check out videos from the local library using services like Kanopy and Hoopla...there are lots of alternatives these days to cable or live streaming tv services...imo...

[ananda]

29. Several years ago, I cut the cable.

It's streaming only now.

[mvd]

30. Currently use YouTube TV, and that's gone up

Now $82.99 per month, which is really too much for my budget. I haven’t found any other services yet that get my regional sports network, local networks, and PBS. Those are very important. I’ll look into the new packages YouTube TV says they’ll be releasing.

[Ilsa]

32. I'd like a simpler YouTubeTv package as well.

There are so many channels I'll never watch and other channels I can get on Disney+/Hulu/ESPN.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

31. I ditched satellite over a decade ago

Called DirecTV and asked why we couldn’t pay à la carte because it’s ridiculous to pay for 1000 channels of crap when I only watched about a dozen. The bastard laughed at me, so I told him I could live without it, then. I canceled on the spot. Pissed me off that I missed the last couple seasons of Vikings, but I’ve probably read close to 3000 books in that time so never really missed the constant background noise (and commercials!)

I did have Netflix, AppleTV, and Hulu for a good while because T-Mobile gave those to us for free (they’ve gone cheap on us and I refuse to even pay their $3/mo deal on AppleTV now), but I almost never watched them. Figure my son has set up a library of movies and TV shows (using Kodi) and I can “go to the movies” any time I want with that.

Seriously, we used to always have the TV on, and I wonder now why we put up with the constant adverts and stupid shows for all those years. Capitalism and the ‘60s really did a number on us, didn’t they? Happy to say my kids resisted that crap way younger than I did—though son’s a bit impatient that I still haven’t caught up to season 5 of Stranger Things yet so he can talk about it.

[Hassler]

33. Cable free since 2010, but I do Sling

During college football season, and have Netflix and Prime.

[NoRethugFriends]

34. Have you considered that some of us like to watch our local sports teams???

Rather presumptuous of you

[PeaceWave]

35. All of that and much, much more is available to stream - and, for less money!

In fact, once you cut the cable, you're no longer going to pay regional sports fees.

[NoRethugFriends]

36. OK. How would I watch the Philadelphia Phillies in your scenario

[PeaceWave]

37. You have at least two choices that I have personal experience with...

YouTube TV includes NBC Sports Philadelphia in its base plan for users within the Philadelphia market area, allowing you to watch most Phillies, 76ers, and Flyers games. For out-of-market fans, you can get an MLB.TV subscription to watch Phillies games. And, good news for you...YouTube TV has stated that it is rolling out new slimmed down plans tailored to different viewing tastes. At least one of those plans will be a sports oriented plan. For your streaming device, I would highly recommend an Onn 4K Streaming Pro ($40 at Walmart) - IF, and this is a big IF, you can find it. Most Walmarts are out of stock. Ever since the tariffs kicked in, decent streaming devices are tough to find.