I sooo want to cut the cord

[OhStuffandFluff]

We had Playstation Vue. It was great if you wanted to watch the loading circle instead of an actual show.

Neither of my daughters have HGTV. I spend a decent amount of time at their places. The longer that I am without it, the less that I miss it. I gave up on TLC years ago. Duggars, hoarders, really obese people and that scary woman from Long Island chased me away.

We would ditch cable - except for my husband and his sports problem. All of the pieced together things that he "needs" for that cost almost as much as cable - so we keep paying.

Husbands and sports!! This is the only reason we have not cut the cord. Any solutions to this issue?

 

[WVMomof3]

The sports is what stopped us for so long. We finally cut the cord around Christmas. My husband had looked into Playstion Vue and Sling and decided that one of them would be good enough as they get ESPN channels. But we still have not started either one. We were able to log into the ESPN app for most of the basketball season. Then all of a sudden we get a message that we can't log in because we don't have the service and we went out to eat during a few games. He said he will be good until football season starts. Sometimes we can log into the ESPN app and get certain games, I am not sure why it works sometimes and others not.

 

[OhStuffandFluff]

The sports is what stopped us for so long. We finally cut the cord around Christmas. My husband had looked into Playstion Vue and Sling and decided that one of them would be good enough as they get ESPN channels. But we still have not started either one. We were able to log into the ESPN app for most of the basketball season. Then all of a sudden we get a message that we can't log in because we don't have the service and we went out to eat during a few games. He said he will be good until football season starts. Sometimes we can log into the ESPN app and get certain games, I am not sure why it works sometimes and others not.

We have experimented using the ESPN app as well and had horrible luck! It was soooo inconsistent!

 

[Goldilocks07]

Where do you all live that the cable is SO CHEAP??? I need to move!

 

[TwoMisfits]

Just redid my 12 month lock today - lowest cable package with unlimited long distance land line and essential internet with 1 HD set box for the tv...$118 and change with all taxes included (it was actually $10 less than I was paying - I called b/c they messed up my original 24 month lock and had raised my rate $20 this month, and during the calls, they accidentally hung up on me twice, and I think felt bad and got me an even lower rate - and I've been an 11 year customer)...I was very happy to keep cable with my internet and phone at that price...

But I live in an area where I can go with 3 different providers for the bundle and every time I get the $79.99 bundle letter from Verizon (a competitor) in my mail, I feel blessed b/c I know I can probably keep a really good rate. If I ever can't, then I'll have to cut...

Now, my tv bundle has few HD channels and almost no Disney channels (ESPN, Disney XD, etc) (-EDIT: Just checked and I do get plain Disney as a standard channel), but it's such a savings over the package that does, it's worth it (I just need my Walking Dead, Food Network, and game shows plus the main network channels to be happy and my kids have become all Youtube/Netflix/Amazon viewers, so they don't need Disney anymore - they are happy enough to use Cartoon Network and Nick if they get really bored)...

EDIT: So my total telecomm cost is $128 (with the triple package and Netflix - I don't count Amazon, b/c I don't use them for tv - I use them for shipping - always have, always will...and really, this is everyone's last option in the house - Youtube is way more watched)...and I have no cell phone package (I know, that's a shocker, but we can only easily afford cell phones or the tv, and I still like the tv more - my spouse's work cell phone is good enough for us to use when we are out and need info or to make a call)...

 

[supersnoop]

Husbands and sports!! This is the only reason we have not cut the cord. Any solutions to this issue?

Can you get some of the sports over the air using an antenna?

 

[DawnM]

I'm not sure, we have a Fire TV so I never really thought about it. I just Googled and I think they launched on both Roku and Apple TV end of 2016

Also, someone mentioned the loading circle, we don't have that problem but it could be a geographical or Internet speed things.

I would like to go without all together but DH and kids couldn't do it. We upgrade out PS Vue in the fall to have the Big Ten network for football season.

I looked it up. The Rokus they work on and the Apple TV they work on are the later versions. We have older versions of both.

 

[DawnM]

Just redid my 12 month lock today - lowest cable package with unlimited long distance land line and essential internet with 1 HD set box for the tv...$118 and change with all taxes included (it was actually $10 less than I was paying - I called b/c they messed up my original 24 month lock and had raised my rate $20 this month, and during the calls, they accidentally hung up on me twice, and I think felt bad and got me an even lower rate - and I've been an 11 year customer)...I was very happy to keep cable with my internet and phone at that price...

But I live in an area where I can go with 3 different providers for the bundle and every time I get the $79.99 bundle letter from Verizon (a competitor) in my mail, I feel blessed b/c I know I can probably keep a really good rate. If I ever can't, then I'll have to cut...

Now, my tv bundle has few HD channels and no Disney channels (ESPN, Disney, Disney XD, etc), but it's such a savings over the package that does, it's worth it (I just need my Walking Dead, Food Network, and game shows plus the main network channels to be happy and my kids have become all Youtube/Netflix/Amazon viewers, so they don't need Disney anymore - they are happy enough to use Cartoon Network and Nick if they get really bored)...

Our cable provider just changed to Spectrum and they no longer offer basic anything it seems.

I called today to find out pricing. I will go to internet only sometime this weekend after DH gets the rooftop antenna working again and I have time to turn in our equipment.

I was $135 and kept creeping up and up and is now $172. We don't even have DVRs! We have our own Tivos.

It will be $65 for just internet at 100mbps

 

[oldtink]

Since retirement, my husband and I feel more trapped by Charter's creeping prices. We also hate the local only landline, so we are going to keep only our internet (not the fastest either),switch to either playstation vue or fire stick, and drop the landline. We have a chromecast set up now and use that more than the actual cable. I often stream PBS, FoxSports, Espn, Big Ten Network from my phone to Chromecast and an internet connection, so not too worried about my sport fix. Charter is talking about dropping Fox Sports in a war to raise prices, so I am just tired of paying other people for less and less.
DH says if we switch/drop, we can save almost $100 a month!
The biggest discussion is talking DH out of his flip phone and upgrade to a smart phone so he can stream too....lol. He jokes that when I leave a room, the tv usually goes off because my phone left with me!

 

[JustKryssi]

I just stopped watching and noticed that I barely miss it anymore. You might surprise yourself.

This.

We haven't gotten there yet. Moved from cable to Sling. I noticed that I have been paring down the shows I used to watch little by little and that I watch PBS shows way more often (which you can get for free through the app). I'm hoping to move completely away from Sling one day to just using Netflix when I feel I want to watch something. It's a work in progress.

But if you don't want to get to this point, I'd go with Sling because they have the most channel options, DVR availability and packages are customizable.

 

[DawnM]

It seems every options has catches.

Sling can offer most of what we need but NBC is an additional $5 and there is no CBS.

But the kids can get their cartoon network and NickTeens for $5 more. I won't pay $5 for NBC. I will either have an antenna or go online.

But then we have to pay $5 more for the blue package or we can only stream ONE device at a time.

We are then up to $30/mo. Oy!

Thinking maybe Hulu Plus and Netflix will be enough. $15/mo.

Still debating.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We have both roku ans firestick, and have had Vue, Sling, and now we use directv now.

With Sling, the channel offerings were too slim and we had a lot of freezing screens.

With Vue, it was constantly "loading", and then they took away Viacomm, so we dropped it.

Now with Directv now, it works great. DH watches a lot of sports on it and DD watches kids shows. We only have 1 tv, so I never get to watch anything, but I don't really miss it. I don't hear a lot of people mention directv now, but it has all their channels and doesn't require a sattelite, which is a big bonus!

 

[DawnM]

We have both roku ans firestick, and have had Vue, Sling, and now we use directv now.

With Sling, the channel offerings were too slim and we had a lot of freezing screens.

With Vue, it was constantly "loading", and then they took away Viacomm, so we dropped it.

Now with Directv now, it works great. DH watches a lot of sports on it and DD watches kids shows. We only have 1 tv, so I never get to watch anything, but I don't really miss it. I don't hear a lot of people mention directv now, but it has all their channels and doesn't require a sattelite, which is a big bonus!

It says you can stream only 2 devices at a time. UGH. Another catch.

Everything has a catch. Nothing truly replaces paid TV.

And I don't even see network TV listed. Do they have ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, etc....???

 

[firefly_ris]

Do not pay for broadcast TV that you can get for free with an antenna. How many devices need to stream simultaneously on a regular basis? I don't have Sling so can't comment on it personally, my brother-in-law has it and likes it, but like us they only have 2 TVs in the house and also like us aren't really huge TV watchers to begin with. They also have a lake house so it made more sense for them to have Sling than to try to get some kind of cable service at 2 homes (2 big bills). It sounds like if you need a lot of on-the-go or other device streaming it's not a good deal. Maybe that will change in the future.

Personally, I agree with one of the previous posters who said you just might not miss it. I remember when we cut the cord back in 2006, very few people had done so and most people who found out we didn't have cable TV thought we were insane -- really! The kinds of reactions we got were very shocked, then they'd go on and on about how they could never live without cable TV, this that and the other thing. It was kind of funny to me that this was a topic that so many people got so worked up about (I'm certain there's more important causes in the world). Here we are 11 years later and 95% of those same exact people all got rid of cable!

My worry with these cable company monopolies is this: we are showing them we won't tolerate inflated prices for garbage TV (really...there is NOT 300 channels worth of anything good on cable. There's not.) -- but my thought is, with decreased subscriptions, they will want to start making up for it. Will they do it with low cost a la carte packages? Or will they say -- OK, our very popular internet service is $60/month, but now we are introducing data limit like on your phone. $60 = 10GB/month. That will quickly put an end to easily streaming Netflix, Hulu, etc. I hope that doesn't happen but if it does I'm not going to be shocked either. I don't know the answer for escaping from the cable monopolies. Fios is certainly not widespread enough to compete with that, and from what I understand they are not expanding their fiber optic services.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

It says you can stream only 2 devices at a time. UGH. Another catch.

Everything has a catch. Nothing truly replaces paid TV.

And I don't even see network TV listed. Do they have ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, etc....???

I think it just depends on your market. Like I said, I just don't watch much TV, so the small things like that don't bother me. I'd be fine without a TV at all.

 

[DawnM]

Do not pay for broadcast TV that you can get for free with an antenna. How many devices need to stream simultaneously on a regular basis? I don't have Sling so can't comment on it personally, my brother-in-law has it and likes it, but like us they only have 2 TVs in the house and also like us aren't really huge TV watchers to begin with. They also have a lake house so it made more sense for them to have Sling than to try to get some kind of cable service at 2 homes (2 big bills). It sounds like if you need a lot of on-the-go or other device streaming it's not a good deal. Maybe that will change in the future.

Personally, I agree with one of the previous posters who said you just might not miss it. I remember when we cut the cord back in 2006, very few people had done so and most people who found out we didn't have cable TV thought we were insane -- really! The kinds of reactions we got were very shocked, then they'd go on and on about how they could never live without cable TV, this that and the other thing. It was kind of funny to me that this was a topic that so many people got so worked up about (I'm certain there's more important causes in the world). Here we are 11 years later and 95% of those same exact people all got rid of cable!

My worry with these cable company monopolies is this: we are showing them we won't tolerate inflated prices for garbage TV (really...there is NOT 300 channels worth of anything good on cable. There's not.) -- but my thought is, with decreased subscriptions, they will want to start making up for it. Will they do it with low cost a la carte packages? Or will they say -- OK, our very popular internet service is $60/month, but now we are introducing data limit like on your phone. $60 = 10GB/month. That will quickly put an end to easily streaming Netflix, Hulu, etc. I hope that doesn't happen but if it does I'm not going to be shocked either. I don't know the answer for escaping from the cable monopolies. Fios is certainly not widespread enough to compete with that, and from what I understand they are not expanding their fiber optic services.

We only have Time Warner Cable for internet. There are no other choices. It is TWC (now Spectrum) or nothing. So not much leverage there. And they may introduce data limits, but what can you really do about it? I can't say "I won't tolerate it!" if I have no other choices. They know they have us.

We went without cable for over 4 years. We do enjoy watching certain shows. And I like not having to watch them on my computer. Those 4 years were fine, although we live out a ways and even with an antenna, we had problems with reception.

 

[DawnM]

I think it just depends on your market. Like I said, I just don't watch much TV, so the small things like that don't bother me. I'd be fine without a TV at all.

And if you only have one or two people in your household, it is fine. We have more. Believe me, I have no desire to watch DH's car shows! And the kids have no desire to watch my crime shows.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Husbands and sports!! This is the only reason we have not cut the cord. Any solutions to this issue?

This is us too. And streaming won't work for us because most Sundays we have people over watching the games. He also NEEDS The Redzone because you know, life isn't the same if he can't watch every touchdown of the day. lol

My son is also a huge NBA fan and DD loves her Disney Jr. shows.

Paying for cable keeps the chaos down in my house. And the complaining. For me it's still worth the money. Once the kids move out I'm lowering the package and removing their boxes in their rooms. That'll at least lower the price.

 

[dreiwhit]

We cut the cord in Feburary because we couldn't keep paying $109.95 a month for Dish Network when there wasn't much that we watched anymore.

We replaced it with OTA TV, Hulu, and Netflix. That is enough for us.

My son wanted to watch the Genius show that National Geographic has going on now. So we got Sling for two months. Quite honestly, we're not going to keep it after Genius is over in June. Its not Sling, its the networks that Sling has. Its the same issue as when we had Dish Network - there is nothing on that we really want to watch.

 

[redsonja76]

Husbands and sports!! This is the only reason we have not cut the cord. Any solutions to this issue?

In our house it's me and football. Fortunately I am moving back home before the start of next season and will be able to pick up the games with an antenna or go to friends houses. I NEED my football. NEED.