We are finally cutting the cord.....

[pdq]

We have TVplus, which is a free streaming (I think) service - it appeared once when we had house sitters, who I presume put it on the TV. There’s no log in or anything - it just appeared in the channel list as another 60-80 channels we hardly ever watch, so it’ll feel just like cable!

They do have a few channels that are occasionally entertaining - Rifftrax (MST3K and the like), FailArmy, the cute Cat and Animal video channel, and some old movie channels. I think there are other similar free streaming services like PlutoTV as well that you could pick up.

[Fritz]

I like still having a "landline". We have 2 lines with Ooma for 5 or more years. No probs.
Hulu, Prime, Netflix ought to keep your eyes pretty busy.

[sekker]

We've tried Sling, DirecTV Now, and are using YoutubeTV as a main set of content. I think YoutubeTV is exactly what the cable companies should have done - I can watch on ANY device, great DVR features etc. But it's over $50/month.

Another consideration is Youtube Premium to remove commercials and to get youtube music.

Disney+ and Apple+ services are just around the corner.

Phone - you could get a google voice number to have something to hand out that's not your cell. My wife does that with ours (we ported our old home number over to a google voice account when we cut the cord).

[Zoidberg]

> How much is the monthly total when you add them all up?

Let's see:

Netflix - $16
Hulu - $14 (no commercials version)
BritBox - $4 (paid annual for discount)
AcornTV - $3 (paid annual for discount)
PBS Passport (perk of donation; but let's say $5 per month)
Boomerang - $3

I don't really count Prime Video as a paid for as a streaming as I pay for Amazon Prime shipping membership; I count it as a perk of that service and wouldn't pay for it separately.

Disney+ will be, what, $6/month when it drops?

So, neighborhood of $50 or so total for only what I want.

And none of that counts the voluminous myriad of free content on YouTube. We watch scores of channels (meaning: YouTubers per se, not direct/pay-for channels) on YouTube regularly, and have had several family nights when that's all we watch. A very, very small sampling would include:

* Brutalmoose,
* 8BitGuy,
* Lazy Game Reviews,
* TechMoan,
* EVNautilus (excellent ocean exploration videos from submersible team)
* CreamHeroes (do you like cats? this is my daughter's go-to channel)
* Binging with Babish

There's scores of sports highlights channels; I've watched decades of baseball highlight collections. Cooking. Cats. Animals. Pets. There are several I follow who focus on Disney (animation, parks, business, background) and on cinema (check out CineFix and CinemaWins. I watch collections of music videos from my high school years (class of '84) and tons of collections of videos from around my hometown of New Orleans, including some classic commercials.

Hell, if you have a streaming box and the YouTube channel, you could be entertained for an almost unlimited amount of time. Just pick a topic and go.

Most people are afraid to cut the cord. My wife's aunt recently house sat for us; when she was here I started to show her the TV setup:

Me: the only thing you need to do is turn the TV on; after that, you can use the Apple remote for everything
Her: oh, I don't need all that; just give me the cable remote and I'll watch whatever's on
Me: we don't have cable
Her: (blinking at me for about 10 seconds, trying to comprehend) what.. what do you mean... everyone has cable
Me: not for at least 5 years; no
Her (I kid you not): how do you... survive without cable?

She had heard the word Netflix but didn't know what it was. Looked at the Apple remote like I was trying to hand her a dead squirrel. (well, that wasn't far off)

Summary; she was a champ at using it by the time she departed. She probably has a streamer box at home now.

Most people don't think there'll be anything to watch or it'll be too expensive. Wrong on both counts. Honestly, for most it winds up being the learning curve of going from a system they've used for multiple decades to something new to them.

[mrbigstuff]

We've discussed this many times (both here and in my household) and it is never any less expensive to cut the cord, as most everything is tied to the cost of plumbing in the internet anyway. For us, it's the same price as not having cable. Of course, we have the lowest of the low cable packages.

[sekker]

mrbigstuff wrote:
We've discussed this many times (both here and in my household) and it is never any less expensive to cut the cord, as most everything is tied to the cost of plumbing in the internet anyway. For us, it's the same price as not having cable. Of course, we have the lowest of the low cable packages.

We've argued about that here, too. But the numbers show my household pays LESS per month than the Charter Triple Play (cable, internet, phone) we replaced. The monthly savings took me 6 months to pay for all of the new hardware - Roku or AppleTV boxes, etc.

Even with big costs of YoutubeTV and internet, and adding Hulu/netflix/youtube premium/CBS All Access, a la carte movie purchases/rentals, I guess we still save $50/month.

[Carm]

We don’t actually plan on watching a lot of tv through other means, like I said we don’t really watch tv.
We were paying about $180 with taxes and fees with Spectrums triple play.
*wife realized she really didn’t miss her recorded shows after the dvr malfunction.

[Bernie]

PBS is off antenna.

Amazon Prime for when cartoons not available on PBS or when they run a weekend of something they don't like.

DirectTVNow basic for grownups.

[Blankity Blank]

Going back to cable I’ll be paying a smallish premium, something like $20-25 per month once I trim the streaming services fat. But for that, I get back the two network locals I couldn’t get reliably or at all OTA, DVR, and from a max bandwidth of 17Mbps to 150Mbps contracted/~170Mbps in practice.

Granted, I have experienced more downtime than before, but so far it’s tolerable, and frankly, not out of line with the downtime of other utilities in the area. And of course once the year honeymoon period is over I expect the piper to come calling.

[onthedownlow]

I have so many opinions on this, but traveling right now.

All, do not forget Pluto TV as a great option (completely free, and also streams in browsers and apps on the desktop, etc.). They keep adding great channels often.

http://pluto.tv/live-tv/