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I've finally unplugged from cable!

RedAkston

RedAkston

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I'll admit it was mostly for financial reasons but it also makes sense.

My cable company raised my rates and wanted $225/month for 100 Mb/s internet, their standard 200 channel package, a Tivo box and a Tivo receiver (for the bedroom), HBO, Showtime and the sports and family packages of which there were only a handful of the sports package programming that I watched and a single channel of the family package that I watched.

A couple of months ago I did some research on Sling TV. The only drawback that I found was that FOX News wasn't a part of the package, only CNN. I realize that FOX News is a biased source, as is CNN, but I watch follow multiple news sources because they all have a lean one way or another and the truth is generally somewhere in the middle.

So I did some calculations this week and came to the conclusion that I could save almost $100/month by unplugging from cable. I'm now subscribed to the following:

Hulu Plus (commercial free) - $12
Netflix - $12
Sling TV - $20
HBO - $15
Showtime (as an add-on to Sling TV) - $9
100 Mb/s internet plan - $60
Total - $128

Sling has some "on demand" programming but they also stream live for several channels that I watch shows on, including ESPN. Hulu Plus, while having a lot of overlapping with their movies (as well as Amazon Prime - I'll get into that later), has a lot of the shows I watch available the next day. The only drawback is CBS, which unfortunately carries a lot of football on Sundays (it's off to the local watering hole to watch football on Sundays it appears).

But the final nail in the coffin for cable was the increasing amount of apps available. You need an account with a cable or satellite company in order to watch their shows and lucky for me my ex-wife has cable and has given me her username and password to use. This opens up all the apps out there for me to use to watch shows on demand. NBC, FOX, FX, History, TNT, ABC, CBS, AMC and others. So I can still get my Netflix fix, my Walking Dead fix, my Ray Donovan fix and all my other "fixes" and save money.

I've said for some time that cable companies are slitting their own throat. The type of "a la carte" offerings like Sling TV are a thing of the future. People have been wanting "a la carte" programming from the cable companies for years and they have consistently refused. I guess technology has caught up with them, just as technology caught up with the phone companies (can you believe what we used to pay for long distance calls?).

The lack of having a DVR does sting a little since I work a very weird schedule now and sleep whenever I can. But with a few exceptions, I can get what I want, when I want and wherever I want (I have wi-fi at work). Ain't technology great!
 
It baffles me how people put up with the cable monopolies. The prices just keep climbing and climbing and climbing and no politician has the guts to stop it.
 
Who's providing your broadband access?
 
dirtpoorchris said:
It baffles me how people put up with the cable monopolies. The prices just keep climbing and climbing and climbing and no politician has the guts to stop it.
Click to expand...

The piticians enabled it, the cable companies petitioned for this, and government loving corporate oligarchy, complied. They won't change it, it brings too much money in for their corporate friends.
 
I've not had cable or satellite for a good five years now for this very reason.

they are very dishonest company and can get away with it.

If I had the money to burn I wold hire an army of lawyers to combat their dishonesty.
 
RedAkston said:
I'll admit it was mostly for financial reasons but it also makes sense.

My cable company raised my rates and wanted $225/month for 100 Mb/s internet, their standard 200 channel package, a Tivo box and a Tivo receiver (for the bedroom), HBO, Showtime and the sports and family packages of which there were only a handful of the sports package programming that I watched and a single channel of the family package that I watched.

A couple of months ago I did some research on Sling TV. The only drawback that I found was that FOX News wasn't a part of the package, only CNN. I realize that FOX News is a biased source, as is CNN, but I watch follow multiple news sources because they all have a lean one way or another and the truth is generally somewhere in the middle.

So I did some calculations this week and came to the conclusion that I could save almost $100/month by unplugging from cable. I'm now subscribed to the following:

Hulu Plus (commercial free) - $12
Netflix - $12
Sling TV - $20
HBO - $15
Showtime (as an add-on to Sling TV) - $9
100 Mb/s internet plan - $60
Total - $128

Sling has some "on demand" programming but they also stream live for several channels that I watch shows on, including ESPN. Hulu Plus, while having a lot of overlapping with their movies (as well as Amazon Prime - I'll get into that later), has a lot of the shows I watch available the next day. The only drawback is CBS, which unfortunately carries a lot of football on Sundays (it's off to the local watering hole to watch football on Sundays it appears).

But the final nail in the coffin for cable was the increasing amount of apps available. You need an account with a cable or satellite company in order to watch their shows and lucky for me my ex-wife has cable and has given me her username and password to use. This opens up all the apps out there for me to use to watch shows on demand. NBC, FOX, FX, History, TNT, ABC, CBS, AMC and others. So I can still get my Netflix fix, my Walking Dead fix, my Ray Donovan fix and all my other "fixes" and save money.

I've said for some time that cable companies are slitting their own throat. The type of "a la carte" offerings like Sling TV are a thing of the future. People have been wanting "a la carte" programming from the cable companies for years and they have consistently refused. I guess technology has caught up with them, just as technology caught up with the phone companies (can you believe what we used to pay for long distance calls?).

The lack of having a DVR does sting a little since I work a very weird schedule now and sleep whenever I can. But with a few exceptions, I can get what I want, when I want and wherever I want (I have wi-fi at work). Ain't technology great!
Click to expand...

I did the Showtime add on to Hulu Plus. I've not done the Sling TV thing. Cut the cord over 2 years ago. As far as "DVR" I use PlayOn. If it's playable to you via the internet such as CBS's current shows, it can record them for you. Unfortunately my Amazon TV doesn't support the playon app (but I believe Roku does). Fairly moot point as the Plex app does work and I can use my recording folder as my server for Plex on the Fire TV.
 
Gaius46 said:
Who's providing your broadband access?
Click to expand...

The cable company, of course. I don't have AT&T or Google fiber or any great alternatives in my area. So they're still getting my money, just a lot less now than before.

 
RedAkston said:
The cable company, of course. I don't have AT&T or Google fiber or any great alternatives in my area. So they're still getting my money, just a lot less now than before.

Click to expand...


Wasn't clear from your initial post. That's why I asked.

Thanks. I've never considered the possibility of just using the cable company to provide just broadband and getting content directly from providers. I really only watch several stations - HBO, CNN, AMC and Food Network primarily. We are pretty well addicted to Netflix and - to a lesser extent - Amazon Prime. It's probably worth my looking into doing the same.
 
Gaius46 said:
Wasn't clear from your initial post. That's why I asked.

Thanks. I've never considered the possibility of just using the cable company to provide just broadband and getting content directly from providers. I really only watch several stations - HBO, CNN, AMC and Food Network primarily. We are pretty well addicted to Netflix and - to a lesser extent - Amazon Prime. It's probably worth my looking into doing the same.
Click to expand...

I forgot to expand on Amazon Prime in my OP. When I first signed up for Amazon Prime, they didn't have near the content that they do now. Sure the price has gone up slightly, but it's still less than $10/month and as much as I buy from Amazon, it's worth it just for the free shipping. I see their media content as a bonus. They have some decent original shows, as does Netflix, which is the only reason I still have Netflix because between the three (Amazon, Hulu and Netflix) there is so much overlap in movie offerings. I also can catch up on Tosh.0 (another of my favorite shows) because the cable company doesn't carry Comedy Central.

All-in-all, the cable companies are now forced to eat it. It's their own doing. I'll miss some things about having cable and the DVR, but I'll get used to it about as quickly as I'll be used to saving about $100 month on my bill.
 
Well, 5 days in and I haven't gone nuts - yet. I've used 11% of my data allowance for the month out of a possible 350 GB. So far, so good. It's a little annoying having to watch the same commercials over and over again and not being able to skip over them like I could with my DVR, but all-in-all I'm pretty happy with the savings. Now if Starz would just change their mind again and offer a stand-alone streaming package like HBO and Showtime does. They originally were going to then changed their mind to not do it. I've already contacted them and told them I'd sign up as soon as they do it but they said that they aren't going to.
 
I have also cut my cable tv, although I still have cable internet. I live 40 minutes from my ISP out in the country, and my only option is comcast. It's tolerable minus the hamburger worshippers I have to talk to if i so happen to require customer service.

151126201740-2745.png


either way, I didn't find much to watch other than The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and documentaries on History Channel, Nat Geo, Animal Planet, and Discovery channel-- all of which are on youtube. No matter how much copyright bullpatties i have to put up with, every show and episode is all on the internet for free not to mention the relatively cheap options like Netflix and Amazon.com.
 
RedAkston said:
I'll admit it was mostly for financial reasons but it also makes sense.

My cable company raised my rates and wanted $225/month for 100 Mb/s internet, their standard 200 channel package, a Tivo box and a Tivo receiver (for the bedroom), HBO, Showtime and the sports and family packages of which there were only a handful of the sports package programming that I watched and a single channel of the family package that I watched.

A couple of months ago I did some research on Sling TV. The only drawback that I found was that FOX News wasn't a part of the package, only CNN. I realize that FOX News is a biased source, as is CNN, but I watch follow multiple news sources because they all have a lean one way or another and the truth is generally somewhere in the middle.

So I did some calculations this week and came to the conclusion that I could save almost $100/month by unplugging from cable. I'm now subscribed to the following:

Hulu Plus (commercial free) - $12
Netflix - $12
Sling TV - $20
HBO - $15
Showtime (as an add-on to Sling TV) - $9
100 Mb/s internet plan - $60
Total - $128

Sling has some "on demand" programming but they also stream live for several channels that I watch shows on, including ESPN. Hulu Plus, while having a lot of overlapping with their movies (as well as Amazon Prime - I'll get into that later), has a lot of the shows I watch available the next day. The only drawback is CBS, which unfortunately carries a lot of football on Sundays (it's off to the local watering hole to watch football on Sundays it appears).

But the final nail in the coffin for cable was the increasing amount of apps available. You need an account with a cable or satellite company in order to watch their shows and lucky for me my ex-wife has cable and has given me her username and password to use. This opens up all the apps out there for me to use to watch shows on demand. NBC, FOX, FX, History, TNT, ABC, CBS, AMC and others. So I can still get my Netflix fix, my Walking Dead fix, my Ray Donovan fix and all my other "fixes" and save money.

I've said for some time that cable companies are slitting their own throat. The type of "a la carte" offerings like Sling TV are a thing of the future. People have been wanting "a la carte" programming from the cable companies for years and they have consistently refused. I guess technology has caught up with them, just as technology caught up with the phone companies (can you believe what we used to pay for long distance calls?).

The lack of having a DVR does sting a little since I work a very weird schedule now and sleep whenever I can. But with a few exceptions, I can get what I want, when I want and wherever I want (I have wi-fi at work). Ain't technology great!
Click to expand...

you have cox cable where you are? it's ridiculous. my tv and internet is 180 total a month. I gotta do something too,
 
Saucey said:
you have cox cable where you are? it's ridiculous. my tv and internet is 180 total a month. I gotta do something too,
Click to expand...


Our Cox Bill is $100 a month. (Internet, Economy Cable, 1 box - no extra boxes in other rooms and not DVR)



>>>>
 
RedAkston said:
I'll admit it was mostly for financial reasons but it also makes sense.

My cable company raised my rates and wanted $225/month for 100 Mb/s internet, their standard 200 channel package, a Tivo box and a Tivo receiver (for the bedroom), HBO, Showtime and the sports and family packages of which there were only a handful of the sports package programming that I watched and a single channel of the family package that I watched.

A couple of months ago I did some research on Sling TV. The only drawback that I found was that FOX News wasn't a part of the package, only CNN. I realize that FOX News is a biased source, as is CNN, but I watch follow multiple news sources because they all have a lean one way or another and the truth is generally somewhere in the middle.

So I did some calculations this week and came to the conclusion that I could save almost $100/month by unplugging from cable. I'm now subscribed to the following:

Hulu Plus (commercial free) - $12
Netflix - $12
Sling TV - $20
HBO - $15
Showtime (as an add-on to Sling TV) - $9
100 Mb/s internet plan - $60
Total - $128

Sling has some "on demand" programming but they also stream live for several channels that I watch shows on, including ESPN. Hulu Plus, while having a lot of overlapping with their movies (as well as Amazon Prime - I'll get into that later), has a lot of the shows I watch available the next day. The only drawback is CBS, which unfortunately carries a lot of football on Sundays (it's off to the local watering hole to watch football on Sundays it appears).

But the final nail in the coffin for cable was the increasing amount of apps available. You need an account with a cable or satellite company in order to watch their shows and lucky for me my ex-wife has cable and has given me her username and password to use. This opens up all the apps out there for me to use to watch shows on demand. NBC, FOX, FX, History, TNT, ABC, CBS, AMC and others. So I can still get my Netflix fix, my Walking Dead fix, my Ray Donovan fix and all my other "fixes" and save money.

I've said for some time that cable companies are slitting their own throat. The type of "a la carte" offerings like Sling TV are a thing of the future. People have been wanting "a la carte" programming from the cable companies for years and they have consistently refused. I guess technology has caught up with them, just as technology caught up with the phone companies (can you believe what we used to pay for long distance calls?).

The lack of having a DVR does sting a little since I work a very weird schedule now and sleep whenever I can. But with a few exceptions, I can get what I want, when I want and wherever I want (I have wi-fi at work). Ain't technology great!
Click to expand...

About a year ago I reduced my cable subscriptions to the bare minimum -- internet access for working from home and only the local channels for news and PBS.

I have not regretted it.

After a while you get un-addicted to all the other channels.

And it also saves about $100 per month as well.
 
I haven't paid for cable in 4 years. But I still have it. ;) I called in to cancel my cable many years ago but they never shut it off and I've never received a bill from them since I called to have them shut it off. Now someone else owns that company and i'm still getting free cable. Though only my kids and wife actually watch it. I prefer Netflix, Hulu, and computer for all my viewing wants.
 
Kal'Stang said:
I haven't paid for cable in 4 years. But I still have it. ;) I called in to cancel my cable many years ago but they never shut it off and I've never received a bill from them since I called to have them shut it off. Now someone else owns that company and i'm still getting free cable. Though only my kids and wife actually watch it. I prefer Netflix, Hulu, and computer for all my viewing wants.
Click to expand...

Ahhh. The old wife + cableman trick.
 
Kal'Stang said:
I haven't paid for cable in 4 years. But I still have it. ;) I called in to cancel my cable many years ago but they never shut it off and I've never received a bill from them since I called to have them shut it off. Now someone else owns that company and i'm still getting free cable. Though only my kids and wife actually watch it. I prefer Netflix, Hulu, and computer for all my viewing wants.
Click to expand...

Sweet deal. I had something like that when I lived in Florida.. free cable for two years. I still didn't watch it much. Too many commercials which I hate worse than going to the dentist.
 
I live in a very populated area. 100,000's of people around this area. I have TWO choices for Internet. TW and Verizon. I don't live out in the boonies. But I can't get ATT, Comcast, Optium, etc. It is amazing what we Americans put up with from our government and the greedy Corporations.

We preach and swear to die for Capitalism and 'Free market'. Yet we sit back and allow the government and cable companies to divide up the neighborhoods and create virtual monopolies.

Anyway a long time ago I refused to pay $200-$300 a month for TV/Internet. So I got the bare minimum DirecTV package and a decent Internet package. Costs about $110 a month. That's livable. And I also got a Fire Stick, a Roku and another box(actually don't even need the box anymore) I won't mention here(maybe against the rules). Between the 3 I can watch anything I don't get from my DirecTV package.

$100 a month? I don't mind. But $250-$300? F'em.
 
We cut satellite 2-3 years ago, and other than not being able to watch news at almost any hour, I don't miss it one bit. And really, not having 24 hr news access isn't the end of the world.

Went from $80/mo satellite to $8/mo Netflix. We're doing just fine.
 
There is only one reason I still have cable tv...SPORTS.

It is, at least where I live, FAR more expensive to watch all the sports I love (football, baseball, hockey, auto racing of all kinds, BPL soccer) without cable then with.

If I did not like sports much, I might have cut the cable long ago.
 
RedAkston said:
I'll admit it was mostly for financial reasons but it also makes sense.

My cable company raised my rates and wanted $225/month for 100 Mb/s internet, their standard 200 channel package, a Tivo box and a Tivo receiver (for the bedroom), HBO, Showtime and the sports and family packages of which there were only a handful of the sports package programming that I watched and a single channel of the family package that I watched.

A couple of months ago I did some research on Sling TV. The only drawback that I found was that FOX News wasn't a part of the package, only CNN. I realize that FOX News is a biased source, as is CNN, but I watch follow multiple news sources because they all have a lean one way or another and the truth is generally somewhere in the middle.

So I did some calculations this week and came to the conclusion that I could save almost $100/month by unplugging from cable. I'm now subscribed to the following:

Hulu Plus (commercial free) - $12
Netflix - $12
Sling TV - $20
HBO - $15
Showtime (as an add-on to Sling TV) - $9
100 Mb/s internet plan - $60
Total - $128

Sling has some "on demand" programming but they also stream live for several channels that I watch shows on, including ESPN. Hulu Plus, while having a lot of overlapping with their movies (as well as Amazon Prime - I'll get into that later), has a lot of the shows I watch available the next day. The only drawback is CBS, which unfortunately carries a lot of football on Sundays (it's off to the local watering hole to watch football on Sundays it appears).

But the final nail in the coffin for cable was the increasing amount of apps available. You need an account with a cable or satellite company in order to watch their shows and lucky for me my ex-wife has cable and has given me her username and password to use. This opens up all the apps out there for me to use to watch shows on demand. NBC, FOX, FX, History, TNT, ABC, CBS, AMC and others. So I can still get my Netflix fix, my Walking Dead fix, my Ray Donovan fix and all my other "fixes" and save money.

I've said for some time that cable companies are slitting their own throat. The type of "a la carte" offerings like Sling TV are a thing of the future. People have been wanting "a la carte" programming from the cable companies for years and they have consistently refused. I guess technology has caught up with them, just as technology caught up with the phone companies (can you believe what we used to pay for long distance calls?).

The lack of having a DVR does sting a little since I work a very weird schedule now and sleep whenever I can. But with a few exceptions, I can get what I want, when I want and wherever I want (I have wi-fi at work). Ain't technology great!
Click to expand...

How are you getting 12 bucks a month for NEtflix. I believe I am at $10 a month. Good deal for you regardless.
 
99percenter said:
How are you getting 12 bucks a month for NEtflix. I believe I am at $10 a month. Good deal for you regardless.
Click to expand...

I upgraded to a higher plan, at least temporarily.
 
RedAkston said:
I upgraded to a higher plan, at least temporarily.
Click to expand...

How is the streaming for your various services, especially Sling TV as I've never used that one?

For me Amazon Prime and Netflix are fantastic. Hulu and HBO can get sucky at times (and yes I have good internet service). I did add Showtime to my Hulu subscription last month but Amazon Prime added their add on services (including Showtime) a couple of days ago so I switched. If Amazon starts adding more and more channels with the ease of adding and dropping them at will it's IMO going to drastically change the media consumption landscape.

Amazon.com: Amazon Video: Amazon Video
 
I look forward to the day that the anti-comcast alternate universe comes along, so we can finally see whether the grass is actually greener. Will single payer internet be better? Will a world of 57 flavors of ISP be better?
 
Winchester said:
How is the streaming for your various services, especially Sling TV as I've never used that one?

For me Amazon Prime and Netflix are fantastic. Hulu and HBO can get sucky at times (and yes I have good internet service). I did add Showtime to my Hulu subscription last month but Amazon Prime added their add on services (including Showtime) a couple of days ago so I switched. If Amazon starts adding more and more channels with the ease of adding and dropping them at will it's IMO going to drastically change the media consumption landscape.

Amazon.com: Amazon Video: Amazon Video
Click to expand...

Sling isn't 100% perfect yet. It tends to hang on load for up to a couple of minutes at times and my Roku locks up from time to time when I exit out of the Sling app while it's streaming. I can tell they are working on it though as they just recently updated their app to have a much friendlier "feel". I also realize that a lot of this stuff is in it's infancy and it won't be perfect right out of the gate, but it's saving me money and I'm quite pleased with everything so far with a minor hiccup here and there.
 
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