I just killed cable — here’s how much I saved and my new replacement

[admin]

I finally canceled cable and signed up for YouTube TV, which has saved me a ton of money. It's also a breeze to use.

I just killed cable — here’s how much I saved and my new replacement : Read more

 

[HowlinWolf]

Mark, what about an ISP? Which one did you choose in lieu of cable and how much does it add to the monthly cost of cord cutting?

 

[kep55]

We get a number of streaming channels for free via our Samsung TV. And for local stations, I just wired in our old Yagi aerial and it pulls in channels from up to 90 miles away. (No, you do NOT need an overpriced "digital" aerial. Radio waves are radio waves.)

 

[FedoraTech]

Paying annual for services will save additional costs. I always go with annual plans. Also check benefits from credit cards and cell provider.

 

[Grendel'sDad]

Just dropped Spectrum cable for YouTube. Seamless. And I LOVE how it's just a matter of a few clicks to drop it if I so choose. Dropping Spectrum was a painful, time consuming hassle that involved a LOT of sales pressure, including at least five minutes worth to switch to Spectrum mobile while I'm in the middle of trying to get rid of Spectrum cable. Never going back. And so far as "living under a rock" is concerned, it's not that so much as just general laziness and having no choice but to keep cable for highspeed internet because there are no other alternatives locally.

 

[USAFRet]

"My total new cost for live TV and streaming services is $147 a month "

Add the actual ISP data cost.

My total monthly cost for the evul cable connection (FiOS) is:
FiOS incl ExtremeTV - $132
Amazon Prime - $10
Netflix - $16

Total - $158/month
SAF (Spouse Acceptance Factor) - Priceless

 

[HoppyJunior]

I had Verizon Fios since 2014, and started out at $64.99 a month for 250 meg Internet, phone (which I didn't want) their highest tier cable and free DVR . By 2018 my bill was $209 plus the usual usury fees and taxes.

I tried Fubo and liked it...then I tried YouTube TV for $34.99 a month. I was sold. I was able to split it with my sister and her boyfriend, both live in the immediate area and qualify for three streams. YouTube TV has gone up to $64.99, or $22 each per month. We all pay around $47 a month for our ISP's. So the total each is $70 per month. That's a far cry from $209 per month.

All of us get Netflix every 4 month. We split Amazon Prime so we get their excellent programming. We take advantage of Showtime deals when available.

I rarely if ever watch network TV, except for live sports. I even get MLB.tv for free with my T-Mobile service. I live in NYC and am a Red Sox fan, so I'm not blacked-out, except for when the Red Sox play the Yankees.

There's such garbage on TV now. I don't watch reality shows. The Food Network and HGTV have turned into crap. But my total of $70 per month is miniscule to the $209 I paid before.

 

[SelfCenteredLife]

Why not just add Live TV to Hulu, get the Disney bundle (which effectively makes Disney+ free), add an HBO subscription for $9/mo and get HBO Max included?

 

[HoppyJunior]

Why not just add Live TV to Hulu, get the Disney bundle (which effectively makes Disney+ free), add an HBO subscription for $9/mo and get HBO Max included?

I don't want Hulu, Disney+ or any of the HBO's. In fact I abhor Disney+. I have my perfect bundle for $22 a month (shared) for YouTube TV plus $47 for my 1 Gig ISP.

 

[SelfCenteredLife]

I don't want Hulu, Disney+ or any of the HBO's. In fact I abhor Disney+. I have my perfect bundle for $22 a month (shared) for YouTube TV plus $47 for my 1 Gig ISP.

I was asking the author of the article who has, and continues to want, those services.

 

[HoppyJunior]

Just dropped Spectrum cable for YouTube. Seamless. And I LOVE how it's just a matter of a few clicks to drop it if I so choose. Dropping Spectrum was a painful, time consuming hassle that involved a LOT of sales pressure, including at least five minutes worth to switch to Spectrum mobile while I'm in the middle of trying to get rid of Spectrum cable. Never going back. And so far as "living under a rock" is concerned, it's not that so much as just general laziness and having no choice but to keep cable for highspeed internet because there are no other alternatives locally.

When I called to cancel Fios, they switched me over to their retention department. They asked me if they could try and reduce my monthly bill. I said sure. After about 25 minutes on hold, they came back with a $5 monthly reduction. I said sayonara. I haven't looked back. I went from $209 a month to $70 with shared YouTube TV and my 1 gb ISP.

 

[Disgusted666]

I finally canceled cable and signed up for YouTube TV, which has saved me a ton of money. It's also a breeze to use.

I just killed cable — here’s how much I saved and my new replacement : Read more

I never thought I'd miss my criminal conglomerate cable service but my 2 Roku TVs w/YT-TV has been an unending humungous nightmare. When you had cable problems, you KNEW who was responsible. With Roku & YT-TV, there are endless entities that could be liable. Roku is a Walmart exclusive that is manufactured in China by TCL. Roku CS claims no responsibility for malfunctions of the TCL unit. Bloodsucking Google's YT-TV has no CS & never fixes problems reported w/their feedback function. Google has changed my playback area to podunk towns 500 mi away 4x in the last year, meaning I couldn't get local news & many networks available in metro areas. It took WEEKS to get them to change it the first 2x but there was no help for the 2nd 2x. I can't remember what finally worked. For 2 months Roku was blasting ads at 10x regular volume & the only reason I KNEW it was Roku was because a customer posted a complaint about Roku movies blasting ads. Nobody is claiming responsibility for skipping/unsynced audio, volume disparities among networks, constant restarts mid-program & a1M other problems. There have been 2 carriage wars in the last year, the second not only raised YT-TVs fee but increased ads so there's more ads/PSA/gratuitously decadent Bravo (MSNBCs sister station) program promos /YT Tips & tricks/Zen moments & dumb-down ads than programming. We are also forced to endure an up to 3-minute 2-not/2-bar syncopated clacking cacophony interlude before and/or after endless ads following each 5 minutes of programming.

 

[jbrel]

And when your internet service is down? Then what?

 

[USAFRet]

And when your internet service is down? Then what?

Go outside.
Read a book.
Listen to the radio.
Visit a friend.
8 zillion other things....

 

[Disgusted666]

GLAD YOU ASKED. That's a whole different nightmare. My landline & ISP are one & the same. Like Roku & Google, CenturyLink has almost ZERO DISservice. A relative emailed me they tried to call & got no ring tone, only static. I tried with my dreadful TracFone & got the same thing. After hanging up the landline, I picked up receiver again & there was no dial tone. I picked it up a second time & got a dial tone & was able to place a call. 3 calls to offshored CS were disconnected & 5 tries at "chat" said I was that I was #72 to #85 in line. I finally got a offshored moron who had 2 braincells to rub together who arranged for a repair 10 DAYS OUT. The problem corrected itself within 3 days. I didn't try to cancel the repair& when the tech arrived he insisted that you get static when a phone is off the hook, which made no sense because I wouldn't have gotten static if a phone was off the hook because I tried both phones. It USED TO BE that you'd get a busy tone when a phone was off the hook. Our free-traitor agreements that sent slavery, jobs, taxes & POLLUTION offshore has created a new GILDED AGE ON STEROIDS of greedy criminal conglomerates with BILLIONAIRE CEOs that will price gouge their stupefied dumbed-down consumers at every opportunistic travesty.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

I skipped a generation on cord cutting. While folks are looking for streaming alternatives to cable, I found that most of my shows are on streaming services that I already have. Sports was a challenge, so I got an antenna and an old tivo for that.

Right now I have D+, Peacock, Paramount+, Hulu, Prime, HBO Max and a few others. By signing term deals with a low rate, I get these all for about $35/month.

So I have NBC, ABC and CBS. I hardly ever watch Fox except for NFL games.

Seems NFL games will be available via streaming this year, which has been a bit of a holdup.

Once I get the sports right, and this seems to be the year, I'll drop the antenna and tivo box.

It stinks that it's all piecemeal and you have to remember where each show resides, but I also know that streaming services will avoid that like the plague since they want you in their ecosystem, not someone elses as a form of middleware. But it's not really that hard.

I've had sling before (loads of problems, clunky, bad PQ, you need to buy Orange to get ESPN, plus Blue for everything else, and at that price, you might as well get youtube tv and an unlimited DVR.

Just...don't fall asleep with youtube tv on if you have a data cap. I tend to do that a lot, and youtube tv for some unknown reason queues up some other random show via autoplay when yours is over. I never could understand that "feature", or why you can't turn it off.

I've had and dropped youtube tv twice now just because of that, because when I go over the comcast data cap, that's $50 and more extra in fees.

For those reasons, I may keep the tivo a while longer. It's nice that it takes all of the shows on broadcast away from that comcast data cap.

In the meanwhile, stalwarts like netflix have been thrown overboard. Too expensive, and their own content isn't that great. Plus, aren't they the only outfit that wants to charge extra for 4K? That's hilarious. Everyone else gives it to me for free.

We already have atsc 3.0 where I live, but I don't think I'll upgrade to a nextgen dvr. Too expensive and too late. Plus it looks like the broadcast networks may pull a cable tv move and encrypt a lot of stuff unless you pay them. No thanks. This isn't the 1990s.

 

[Bitsurfer]

It can get significantly cheaper when you understand that you don't have to have every streaming service active at once. Just alternate between them every other month and you can stay well below. $40. After all, they are no contracts so you can terminate and reactivate streaming channels on-demand at your convenience. Having multiple services activated at once. Having all of the channels active at once is the old cable model. Don't replicate it.

When AppleTV has something new, I wait for the whole season to be up. Subscribe for one month, binge, and terminate service. Then I move on to HBO and repeat. ... Same with HBOmax. So its never $8+14.99, but its 8 month 1 and 14.99 for month 2. etc ..

 

[Mark Spoonauer]

Mark, what about an ISP? Which one did you choose in lieu of cable and how much does it add to the monthly cost of cord cutting?

I actually kept the same ISP for now but am open to switching...

 

[Mark Spoonauer]

Why not just add Live TV to Hulu, get the Disney bundle (which effectively makes Disney+ free), add an HBO subscription for $9/mo and get HBO Max included?

Good point on the bundle, which I should have done...Going to sign up for that