Suggestions for cutting the Cable TV cord?

[JimMIA]

I'm getting tired of Direct TV issues, having to sign up for additional streaming services to get good programming, and AT&T in general. We have a big bundle which includes 3 cellphones, Direct TV, and a landline for our alarm and ATT internet.

Can anyone give me some suggestions for eliminating Direct TV, and replacing it with a streaming service that will offer comparable channel selection? I know we will have to consider whatever bundle "savings" may go away, but there are other parts of that bundle we wouldn't mind switching anyway.

"Musts" are live news and sports including both the old "major networks" and CNN/Fox/etc. For sports, we watch college football (mostly on ESPN and its offspring) and Miami Marlins baseball (which is mostly on Fox Sports Florida). We also have Netflix currently and DW is addicted to a couple of shows found only there.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Kitty 34]

I was going to suggest scissors.........


Don't go to DISH.....they took away my CBS several weeks ago!

 

[JimMIA]

I was going to suggest scissors.........


Don't go to DISH.....they took away my CBS several weeks ago!

No, there would be no benefit to that.

The initial research I've done seems to recommend YouTubeTV for a combination of live and on-demand programming, but I don't know much about that one.

 

[Farro]

We have YouTube TV and love it!!! Tons of channels.

 

[RamblingMad]

Try SlingTV. I use it for La Liga soccer. I need BEINSPORTS for it, and they make it available as package.

HULU TV and YouTube TV are also good options. It really boils down to what you want to watch. I prefer to watch TV without commercials, so I mainly watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, or HULU.

 

[Pyotr]

I use YouTube TV. I’ve tried almost all the streaming services and this has been my favorite so far. I believe they have a free trial.

 

[HeatherC]

YouTube TV here too.

 

[kdonnel]

Another vote for YouTubeTV. It is not as cheap as it once was at $64.99 but offers a great lineup of channels and technology for the price.

 

[RamblingMad]

If you don't mine watching commercials, a lot of these channels have their own ROKU app.

You can also watch a bunch of stuff on PlutoTV as well. And these are all free. For example, you can catch CW shows on the CW app or CW Seed. SyFy has an app. Peacock is NBCs new app. You can watch a lot of content with commercials with it. Your local library should provide access to Hoopla and kanopy, which also provides for free viewing. There is a PBS app that's free. Freeform also has an app as well as TBS. The ROKU channel app also has a lot of great content.

I'm currently watching Spenser for Hire on imdbTV.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

We tried both Hulu and YouTube Tv and settled on Hulu, but really liked both.

 

[Deb]

I've had YoutubeTV for a couple of months now and been pretty happy with it

 

[Kittyblue]

I mostly watch Netflix, Hulu, and CBS All Access. I have Amazon Prime but that's mainly for shipping. If there's a series I REALLY want to watch I purchase the season pass on Amazon. In the end I still come out ahead vs paying for cable.

 

[AustinTink]

We watch almost everything on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. We were just discussing tonight switching to basic cable on Spectrum, since we can get the premium movie channels like HBO on Amazon for less and on a month-by-month basis.

 

[bcla]

The other alternative (not mentioned) is Fubo. They supposedly specialize in live sports, but I see more non-sports channels.

https://www.fubo.tv
You can find out what they have based on your location. I can't find out what they have for your location. But when it sees where I am, I get the local NBC Sports local channels as well as most of the major sports networks (ESPN, NBCSN, FS1, etc.) in the basic package.

 

[mrodgers]

Netflix - $13.77
Hulu with ads - $6.35
Prime - $6.88 (student)
Total - $27

And I basically watch none of those after 5 years. 99% of the time I watch Youtube. I seek out hobby related content and can't even watch everything I subscribe to, there is so much. Individual content creators make money for their work and I'm not supporting huge production corporations and the elite. I just wish it wasn't also the Youtube tech company that I was supporting as well.

 

[mrs. magoo]

We have youtube tv. I picked it because you can have 3 people on at the same time. My father lives with us and has it on all day but it allows 2 other people to watch as well. We also have netflix and amazon but we has those when we were paying for cable.

 

[mzspaz]

Every time one of these threads gets posted, I read through all the comments and add to my research. I think I have our potential channel line up figured out, but I'm curious what you do for your Internet provider? If we cut our cable cord (Fios) we pay nearly as much for simple Internet services.

I don't mean to thread hijack, it's just part of the cord cutting discussion I don't often see brought up.

 

[supernova]

My wife is a huge fan of our three local PBS stations, along with their Create TV channel. Haven't found a good way to incorporate them into our alternate options. Thoughts anyone?

 

[JimMIA]

Every time one of these threads gets posted, I read through all the comments and add to my research. I think I have our potential channel line up figured out, but I'm curious what you do for your Internet provider? If we cut our cable cord (Fios) we pay nearly as much for simple Internet services.

I don't mean to thread hijack, it's just part of the cord cutting discussion I don't often see brought up.

Good point. We have ATT internet and are satisfied with it. Also have ATT phones X 3 unlimited, and like that too. But the whole package is more than $400 per month (landline, internet, Direct TV, and phones), so we're looking at options.

 

[sam_gordon]

Every time one of these threads gets posted, I read through all the comments and add to my research. I think I have our potential channel line up figured out, but I'm curious what you do for your Internet provider? If we cut our cable cord (Fios) we pay nearly as much for simple Internet services.

I don't mean to thread hijack, it's just part of the cord cutting discussion I don't often see brought up.

Obviously you need internet to do streaming. But, most people will have their internet service as part of their day to day lives. Depending on how you get your internet/cable, yes, unbundling may not be financially beneficial.