I cut the cord — but I’m still paying a cable-d bill

[admin]

The age of streaming was meant to help cut our costs, but the streaming service arms race has other plans. Newer, costlier plans, each with their own must-see TV shows and movies.

I cut the cord — but I’m still paying a cable-d bill : Read more

 

[Mr Rogers]

Cable vs Streaming--

You don't drop cable for streaming just to save money. It's about watching what you want when you want it.

Cable follows the old model that requires viewers to watch according to the provider's schedule.

Streaming allows viewers to choose.

 

[SoCalJasonland]

Do you actually watch every one of those streaming services every month? I sign up for most of those services one at a time and cancel at the end of a month's cycle, when I run out of things to watch and switch to a new one. Amazon Prime is the one one we keep yearly and that is for my roommate's shipping needs, not because they have a year's worth of new programing.

 

[Mr Rogers]

Do you actually watch every one of those streaming services every month? I sign up for most of those services one at a time and cancel when I run out of things to watch and switch to a new one. Amazon Prime is the one one we keep yearly and that is for my roommate's shipping needs, not because they have a year's worth of new programing.

No, but that doesn't change what I said. It had nothing to do with how many or which streaming services one needs. I was simply pointing out a (or possibly THE) fundamental difference between old-school cable vs streaming. It is NOT about cost.

 

[majellan77]

I welcome your problem. My GF refuses to ditch cable. It's taken her 7 long years to just about get how to use Roku. We have (for my sanity) ESPN+, Disney+, Netflix, Prime, Paramount+, Hulu. We've had cable for more than 20yrs and that remote is the only one she's comfortable using.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

What a giant strawman.

For starters, anyone "needing" to have every service at once isn't a thing unless you wanna pay for the pleasure. That certainly isn't any sort of comparison to cable, where you'd have to wait for something you want to watch to come on, if it ever did.

So we changed out the apples for some big fat oranges right there.

Second, I have many of these services and I don't pay full price for any of them. Deals abound.

I get hulu for $1/month and that's been a thing for years now. AMC+ was $24 for 12 months, total. I get peacock premium from Comcast for free for having internet with them. Paramount+ is $99/year with deals that can cut that in half. I have a year that was $50/year when I signed up last year. Disney+ was 3 years for $140 when it launched. I'm still halfway through that. HBO Max can be had for $99/year as well.

Netflix just doesn't have enough usable content that I care about. I certainly don't need any of it in real time, which you never had with cable in the first place. Put that $15/mo to use elsewhere and sub once in a while for a month to catch up.

Pro-tip: If you MUST have netflix, downgrade to the $9/mo basic plan. I don't see any picture quality difference that means anything, and Netflix is one of the few streamers that wants extra for 1080p and 4k.

If cable did indeed deliver every bit of possible content on demand at no additional cost, we might have a story here.

What we have is "I want way more than cable ever offered me, for less $".

If you want that, get youtube tv for $65/month and rejoice. Or wait for what you want to roll around to Sling at $35 and rising rapidly, while also offering only 720p picture quality just like netflixs basic plan. With lousy bitrate and resulting PQ.

 

[USAFRet]

I welcome your problem. My GF refuses to ditch cable. It's taken her 7 long years to just about get how to use Roku. We have (for my sanity) ESPN+, Disney+, Netflix, Prime, Paramount+, Hulu. We've had cable for more than 20yrs and that remote is the only one she's comfortable using.

I feel your pain.

But for us, the only extras over the FiOS TV is Netflix and Amazon Prime.

 

[USAFRet]

If you want that, get youtube tv

Which requires what 'device' to access that?

 

[BeholdersEye]

The age of streaming was meant to help cut our costs, but the streaming service arms race has other plans. Newer, costlier plans, each with their own must-see TV shows and movies.

I cut the cord — but I’m still paying a cable-d bill : Read more

I simply don't understand your wacko logic, why is it you have this need to satisfy your instant gratification, it's your stupidity that is costing you money. Ah here's a thought....ONLY DO ONE STREAMING SERVE PER MONTH...

 

[Tanquen]

You just have to exercise some control and learn to wait. You don't need to watch every show the moment's available. Most shows end up on other services. I take my annual time off from work in November and December and that's when I pay for a month of Disney Plus or what have you to watch a few shows that have piled up.

I just canceled Netflix after their price hike. Vote with your time and your dollars. Don't give in to theirs poopy practices.

 

[jasonmicron]

I'm sorry, but I don't buy this for a second. This is a hit piece.

No one watches the amount of shows that you 'claim' to watch across that many providers. No one, unless you're Peggy Bundy from the TV show "Married With Children".

That said, this is why many, many people consolidate these one-off shows onto a central server and share access to their friends. Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, etc. It isn't about trying to 'steal' content, it is more about convenience, which your article articulated perfectly: Why have all of these services for one or two shows and then continue to pay for the time that you're not even using the service when your shows aren't on?

We're in a weird, weird situation where the consumer has more say over the content they want to digest than the provider (Cable and content creators). I think it would be smart, probably very profitable, for the content creators and content distributors to work hand-in-hand with Plex/Emby/Jellyfin/etc providers to figure out some way to make everyone happy and keep things on the up-and-up.