01-27-2016, 05:22 PM
I cut the cable for TV about a year ago. Very happy with the decision.
Bought a digital antenna on an Amazon Gold Box special for around $15; can pick up all my local channels plus a few regional ones. So I'm good for local news, weather watching (I'm in Central AR, so tornados), and occasional weekend sports.
I have an AppleTV and a Roku. Most of my watching is purchased/rental movies on AppleTV. Also subscribe to Netflix and Hulu. Got the Roku for Amazon Prime offerings, initially, but also subscribed to AcornTV ($49/year; lots and lots of British TV). Neither of those are currently available on AppleTV but, once they are, I'll drop the Roku altogether.
Cable Internet bill started at about $50/mo (Comcast) for very good download speeds (40 to 70) and unlimited data. We use between 500GB and 1TB a month, so when data caps rolled out, I opted into their "unlimited" service for an additional $35/mo. Not great but there's no other (real) options in my area. (I reminded Comcast that when I signed up for their Cable Modem service, it was sold as "unlimited" but they said "yes, but that was a different definition of unlimited", so whatever.)
Depending on which shows you wat watch (you didn't mention which ones from Spike/CMT), they may be available on something like Hulu or at least another streaming channel.
Don't cut the cord thinking you are going to save money.
That's a myth, more or less -- kind of like all the people I knew back in the 80s who bought satellite dishes (the big ones) thinking they were going to get all their TV for free, and then the channels started scrambling everything. What's going on with streaming services is the modern-day equivalent of that.
No, I dumped cable TV because it was all commercial-ridden shit. DVR or no, it just wasn't worth what I was paying. I'm currently pretty happy with the streaming services I use; I can do it a la carte and watch when I want to watch. Right now, commercials are not an issue, but I suspect they eventually will be.
Example; Fox has a service (I forget if it's Fox Now or FX Now) that has every Simpsons episode. Sometimes I'll get a commercial mixed in with it. Only a single one, but if you binge watch it's the same one each time there's an interruption. It's not a big deal. As older family members have told me, this is what it was like in the dawn of the TV age -- a show was brought to you by a single sponsor, so you got a single sales pitch, usually at the halfway mark and maybe at the end.
Bought a digital antenna on an Amazon Gold Box special for around $15; can pick up all my local channels plus a few regional ones. So I'm good for local news, weather watching (I'm in Central AR, so tornados), and occasional weekend sports.
I have an AppleTV and a Roku. Most of my watching is purchased/rental movies on AppleTV. Also subscribe to Netflix and Hulu. Got the Roku for Amazon Prime offerings, initially, but also subscribed to AcornTV ($49/year; lots and lots of British TV). Neither of those are currently available on AppleTV but, once they are, I'll drop the Roku altogether.
Cable Internet bill started at about $50/mo (Comcast) for very good download speeds (40 to 70) and unlimited data. We use between 500GB and 1TB a month, so when data caps rolled out, I opted into their "unlimited" service for an additional $35/mo. Not great but there's no other (real) options in my area. (I reminded Comcast that when I signed up for their Cable Modem service, it was sold as "unlimited" but they said "yes, but that was a different definition of unlimited", so whatever.)
Depending on which shows you wat watch (you didn't mention which ones from Spike/CMT), they may be available on something like Hulu or at least another streaming channel.
Don't cut the cord thinking you are going to save money.
That's a myth, more or less -- kind of like all the people I knew back in the 80s who bought satellite dishes (the big ones) thinking they were going to get all their TV for free, and then the channels started scrambling everything. What's going on with streaming services is the modern-day equivalent of that.
No, I dumped cable TV because it was all commercial-ridden shit. DVR or no, it just wasn't worth what I was paying. I'm currently pretty happy with the streaming services I use; I can do it a la carte and watch when I want to watch. Right now, commercials are not an issue, but I suspect they eventually will be.
Example; Fox has a service (I forget if it's Fox Now or FX Now) that has every Simpsons episode. Sometimes I'll get a commercial mixed in with it. Only a single one, but if you binge watch it's the same one each time there's an interruption. It's not a big deal. As older family members have told me, this is what it was like in the dawn of the TV age -- a show was brought to you by a single sponsor, so you got a single sales pitch, usually at the halfway mark and maybe at the end.