Why I Won't Cut the Cord for YouTubeTV or Any Other Service

[henrytcasey]

While online cable-replacement services seem tempting, all of the options so far have fatal flaws.

Why I Won't Cut the Cord for YouTubeTV or Any Other Service : Read more

 

[FlasherMelrose]

If I could afford an additional $100 a month I'd have stayed too.

 

[mathfaster]

As you stated above, these streaming options don't seem ready yet for Prime Time. Dish introduced their Flex pack about 6 months ago so I switched to that recently and was able to cut my bill by $25 month. Not truly a la carte programming but a step in the right direction as sports, kids TV, etc. are available as add ons.

 

[Fred_42]

I think you meant "inane" reality shows on MTV and vh1.

 

[Dean R]

We have been off all of the cable, satellite TV options for several yeats. We now have Netflix and that is about all we watch. If it's not on Netflix we just don't watch. We actually have Comcast for our internet and get a small basic package but never watch anything on there unless it's a movie from the on demand service..


In my opinion the " cord cutting " is more about wanting ala carte packages than it is about price....I think most people just don't want to pay for channels they won't watch but are more than willing to pay a reasonable fee for the channels they will watch..

 

[natschultz]

Stupid question: Don't you STILL have to pay a cable or satellite company to have the internet access necessary to get TV online???
We pay $130 per month for FIOS triple-play that has internet, land-line and cable with ALL network and basic cable channels (common ones and weird ones) plus Showtime and HBO. That cost includes two separate cable boxes. I watch too many cable channels from different companies that just aren't offered on any internet TV service. None of these offer History or Discovery or FYI or HGTV? No One America News, AWE, The Blaze, Bloomberg, BBC, RT? No IFC or other channels that show indie, foreign and old films? That means no 'Vikings' and no 'Outsiders'.

Seems that once you pay for both internet service plus one of these services that you are not saving that much money, blowing through lots of bandwidth, and getting very little variety. Better to just call up your cable provider when they raise their rates and bitch until they lock in your current price or give you something worth the extra $30 (free Showtime & HBO in our case). And, if you still use your landline, or just want to keep the number for emergencies, it is essentially free. If you live in the mountains of Vermont a cell phone is virtually useless; as in with Verizon you get a connection 20% of the time, and all other providers maybe 5-10%.

Also, a lot of the cable channels now allow you to stream content for free on their websites from anywhere as long as you can prove you pay for cable service at home.

 

[FlasherMelrose]

As you stated above, these streaming options don't seem ready yet for Prime Time. Dish introduced their Flex pack about 6 months ago so I switched to that recently and was able to cut my bill by $25 month. Not truly a la carte programming but a step in the right direction as sports, kids TV, etc. are available as add ons.

 

[Fred_44]

Still the best and always the best... Windows Media Center PC and now combined with EMBY.. It does everything. Cord cutting???? So you pay $60 a month for internet.... Then let's say $25 for sling blue so you can watch it on more than one TV... Who knows what they will charge for DVR. So now you are talking $85 a month. Throw in Netflix at $10 so that's $95. Not bad compared to cable TV usually $200 a month paying for all the boxes and so forth.

Now comes WMC. Yes the computer, TV tuners, and other equipment will be fairly expensive upfront. A good computer with 6 cable card tuners will cost $1000 but has enough room to store double the amount of TV shows your cable box does plus digital copies of movies and TV shows. It can auto skip commercials for you and has a TVGuide that destroys any cable box experience. Then let's you need other tv well with EMBY you can get all of them to the other TV's as well just with a smart TV box. So Apple TV, shieldtv, mi box, or firetv will work. So let's say 5 more TV's for a total of 6 TV's and $1600.

What's my cable bill? $90 a month. Yes that is correct $90 a month. I get every non premium channel plus HBO with 100mbps internet for $90 a month from Comcast. How? Because I use none of their equipment. So $100 a month with Netflix and I'm only spending $5 more than a cord cutter. That $1600 upfront cost is paid for in at least 16 months maybe sooner... Depends on how big your bill was. So cable TV experience with cord cutter prices? That's the right way to do it.

 

[alexseven7]

TiVo box with additional satellite boxes, a good antenna. Sling and netflix. Under $35 per month. Problem solved.

 

[mlaphand]

I was with VZW for years and felt raped, finally switched to Google Fi, now pay less than $30/mo sgl line for everything(I don't stream anything). Currently w/Comcast, feeling raped, tried others but went back to Comcast due to quality, now waiting, watching the options. I hesitate cutting the cord and instead will wait for Comcast to realize loss of market share due to cordcutters, and eventually offer ala carte programming, or at least lower priced packages, its just a matter of time as competitors rush to be the first to do so with lower priced options..., fingers crossed.

 

[DevinSerpa]

Cord cutter for 5 years. Legacy movies on Plex, new stuff on Ultraviolet. Programing on Netflix and Amazon, free ad based choices like Crackle and more recently Vudu movies on us.

Never again paying for ads on packaged programing, whether it be channels like offerings discussed in this article or on demand like Hulu.

 

[jjcasey]

Cord cutting doesn't work for everyone. If you need to watch lots of channels live then cable / internet bundles are still the cheapest options. If you want live sports and can wait to watch shows on Netflix, Amazon or Hulu then you can save a lot. To me its about choice. Surveys show 95% of people watch the same 20 channels and the rest are filler. I don't like paying extra for things I don't want and will never use.

 

[DevinSerpa]

Cord cutting doesn't work for everyone. If you need to watch lots of channels live then cable / internet bundles are still the cheapest options. If you want live sports and can wait to watch shows on Netflix, Amazon or Hulu then you can save a lot. To me its about choice. Surveys show 95% of people watch the same 20 channels and the rest are filler. I don't like paying extra for things I don't want and will never use.

If one wants sports but wants to cut the cord then the options in this article are for them.

 

[Michaelkpate]

At my house we had been cable tv subscribers since 1981. Years ago we chose the Full HD Package which as of December 2016 was costing us $96 a month.

We switched to Playstation Vue in the middle of December. My mother can still watch Fox News during the day. We can still watch all the shows in primetime we used to watch except CBS which I plan to catch up on later. We can still watch all the sports we used to watch - mainly NASCAR and Formula One.

Everyone has different needs/desires but PSV works great for us. And feels like a huge win every month.

 

[BadCommand]

Babbling incorrect and useless article.

 

[Mike130784]

Why use any of it and pay ,. when its all a collection mostly of old shit ,. freely watchable and obtainable online already anyways,.
i have never interested me in this whole netflix hype or any other clone of it ,.
they all want me to pay for things i can get for free xD

 

[RaR_80]

I don't think the author understands cord cutting. None of these options are cord cutting, you're still paying for a cable-like package of channels that are still being delivered by the cable/fiber company. It's just now you access it via the internet instead of through a cable box. A lot of cable offers online viewing and cloud DVR now too. We have a $30 cable bill for Internet, and then have a broadcast antenna that gives 30+ channels for free. Plus a Netflix subscription. That's cord cutting. This has been our setup for 2+ years and I don't miss a single thing about cable. It's amazing how much of your life you get back when you cut out a lot of TV. I don't get the obsession over live sports. I watch what I can online or OTA, or watch condensed games or replays. Even when I had cable I would DVR NFL games and watch them later. You realize it doesn't change the outcome if you're not watching? Plus It lets you fast forward through all the commercials. Or better yet, take that money you're saving and go to a game live.
Until cable lets me choose exactly what channels I want for a reasonable price, I'll never go back.

 

[Jason_244]

PS Vue is where it's at, I know a couple people who have it besides me and NONE of us were upset when they took of comedy central (who even watches that anymore?) MTV, VH-1, what is this 1997? Seriously, NO ONE cares about those channels. $75 a month? not sure what plan you were talking about, for $34.99 I get just about everything I want including NBA TV and NFL Network. For the kids, we still have access to Disney, Disney Jr. and Disney XD. You can record shows up for up to 30 days and you get log in access to all kinds of things like WatchEspn, NBC, ABC and Fix On-demand. I think Tom was a little "mis-guided" as far as PS Vue goes.

 

[UberStCrew]

Great article, I agree 100%. None of these OTT services, in their current forms, are viable options. At least not for us. Maybe when competition heats up more and these services improve we will reconsider them but for now we are stuck with Comcast.

 

[UberStCrew]

People keep pimping Playstation Vue and some $34.99 plan. News flash people Vue doesn't offer a $34.99 plan to everyone. The Cheapest Vue plan available here is $39.99 for some basic "Access" package that has hardy any content that most people want to watch.

To get many of the channels that we actually watch we would have to get the Elite package from Vue for $54.99/mo. If we wanted HBO like we have now that's another $15/mo.So at that point are already up to $70/mo. Then we are missing content that we do watch from channels such as History, A&E, Comedy Central, Hallmark, Smithsonian, Military History just to name a few.

Yes there are people who actually watch content that isn't available in the measly $40 PS Vue package, it's not even available in their $75 package. So while Vue may work for some people it is sorely lacking in content for many others.