NFT: Cutting the Cord- Did anyone regret it?

I never watch cable for anything other than sports. I watch The Office on Peacock a ton. I get by on watching YouTube videos. Some channels are a very good follow and it's amazing how much quality is behind the production run by people not on mainstream television.

What's on TV, the news etc .. Most of it ... is absolute garbage filth.

Love it.

Which includes FREE Sunday Ticket, Direct TV with Tivo can't be beat.

Everyone I know who cut the cord all came back.

I’ve had FUBO TV for about a year now. It’s great. Has everything, except the Yankees.

I have DirecTV for most of my content. In general, I find the streaming to be a pain (I know, old guys, get off my lawn).

I looked into reducing my DirecTV to a "minimum" and use the "savings" to subscribe to one or more. I can reduce by about $60 a month. I assume that can pay for more streaming.

In my area, I don't have any FIOS or AT&T Uverse options. I get my WiFi via Cable.

In comment 15357111 Stan in LA said:

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Which includes FREE Sunday Ticket, Direct TV with Tivo can't be beat. Everyone I know who cut the cord all came back.

And I don't know anyone who went back.

after that service ended, jumped over to Sling TV. No regrets. Redzone is worth it. Plus no boxes to lease from a company that sucks at keeping appointments. Everything is through Roku(which I have built in w/ Smart TVs). No extra cords, holes being drilled, unsightly wires.

I pay Sling directly and it's always month to month. Cancelling Redzone(Sports package) when football season is over is super simple on their website. Just added it in about a minute for this season. Best part? I get 6% cashback w/ my Amex card.

is when family is over or babysitting/dogsitting and they don't understand how to use YoutubeTV...

Personally, for my own use, haven't regretted it once and even wonder if I could get buy without YoutubeTV

However, there has come a time or two in which I missed he ease of cable but with the money saved its a quick after thought and with so many options at this point in time I don't know how they survive.

Freaking hated it. There’s nothing better than turning on the TV and having it be TV. I don’t need to go into a freaking app to watch TV. TiVo rocks. Cutting the cord and watching a streaming TV service doesn’t save you a single Danny dime either.

and every cord cutter you know switched back to cable/sat. You know less people than anyone alive.

at family and friends houses - it still isn't for me. No real cost savings (YouTube TV is $64 per month, my full cable package including hardware is under $85 when bundled with internet) but still issues with getting some channels I'd want which is worth more than the cost savings (YES Network for example).

Still just too much of a pain but each year I get closer to making the move.

So far so good. Bought an Android TV and up comes all the apps I need (YTTV, Netflix, HBO, etc). These isn't one channel I miss, and I've saved over $100 per month (including Sunday Ticket payments). Now I haven't had this during football season yet, that is my qualifier. However I signed up for Game Pass Int'l so I can watch the Giants games live (or any game really) and YTTV has Redzone and all the rest of the local channels.

I have the same service for the past 5 years. It's fast, dependable, and cheap.
I get everything that your direct TV gets including all the sports and ppv events.i just download the app to my firestick and I'm gold. I have many other free TV and movie apps. Anyone who wants to know about my setup, contact me.

I switched a few months before COVID hit and I don't have any regrets. I use Hulu. I already had been using Netflix for quite some time, but have since added HBO Max, Disney, Discovery, and Amazon Prime. While I'm still saving money, the add ons add up lol!

I think I did it about 10 years ago. My wife misses channel surfing, but with all the streaming services, there's always something.

You watch what you're interested in, drop it and pick up another one. I think that there's actually a ton of great content that isn't even on traditional TV.

Sports is the one big drawback, but I basically only watch the games I'm interested in now.

After 18 years. Went to YTTV with Discovery+ And I’ll never go back to DTV.

Granted I'm in a bit of an advantageous situation as I pay for Apple TV+ and Netflix but I also piggy back off my several family members for Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Paramount + and the FiOS account to watch some other things through apps such as YES Network and others. So we have plenty to watch without cable. I also live in Central NY, so we usually have Giants games unless they're on CBS at the same time Bills are playing I'll usually stream off something like sportsurge.net and then cast it through the Apple TV.

streaming services offer both MSG and YES? I do like just flipping through channels on occasion, but I could get over not having that option. But MSG/YES are really the issue for me.

.

In comment 15357166 Collins25 said:

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I have the same service for the past 5 years. It's fast, dependable, and cheap. I get everything that your direct TV gets including all the sports and ppv events.i just download the app to my firestick and I'm gold. I have many other free TV and movie apps. Anyone who wants to know about my setup, contact me.

isn't iptv illegal though?

Mostly YouTube shorts nowadays.

For what I used to pay for DirecTV I have

- YouTubeTV
- Netflix HD
- HBOMax
- Disney/Hulu/ESPN+
- Philo
- Prime
- Apple TV Plus

And I still think I’m 10 bucks in the black.

I ended up saving like $20 a month and it was just not worth it at the time (3/4 years ago I think). It was difficult to figure out how to get the Giants at the time and I actually found I missed that Redzone channel when the Giants weren’t playing. I’m sure it’s easier now and maybe you save more but Comcast charged me a sort of high amount for just having the internet and having two daughters and a wife everyone wanted one thing that never managed to be on one service. I never watch cable tv except the Giants, Yankees and other random sports games but still have it. I’m sure it’s easier and you can save more now but I haven’t looked into it again.

From fios- paying $212 a month for internet and tv, I have YouTube TV with RedZone and 4k channels with 1GB internet from optimum(I have my own modem and router so no issues) and I pay $132 a month, just makes sense as we watch 8 channels.

If you're a TMobile customer they give you $10 off a month for YouTube TV

Ironically, I called Spectrum this morning because my promotion pricing ended. The best they could do was to cut my service down.

Internet/phone (need to keep phone for my security system) would be $110 and Fubo (which gives me most of the channels I want, but still missing some) is $65 (I believe). I'm paying $190 for the full bundle right now, so I'm close enough to not have to deal with the missing channels.

Down the road I may switch if 4K HDR content becomes more available for sporting events, and the streaming service platforms carry it where Spectrum doesn't. It's a little clunky having to use the networks app for that content when you're channel surfer like I am. This past Saturday, Fox Sports app streamed all of their college football games in 4K HDR. I had to run that on my Roku, and switch to my Cable input during commercial breaks to see games on other networks.

That's a biggie. They are charging $20 per month for 4K but you can also stream to an unlimited # of devices instead of 3.

you can share logins with the family, or rotate between services.

The unique content on Netflix, Hulu, etc aren't going anywhere.

I typically sign up for a couple at a time and rotate them out when there's nothing I want to watch. Activating and deactivating accounts is not that hard.

I also absolutely hated dealing with the cable company about their obligatory increases in pricing after your "SPECIAL" pricing expired every year.

And I have a very big family and network of friends.

But I'll add a few thoughts. I dropped TV and home phone from Fios years ago and originally went with PS Vue and then switched to YouTubeTV when Vue went away and kept Fios for internet only. It was absolutely a savings for me and I am much happier. The cost savings depends on how many boxes you are renting from cable/fios and the channel lineup. Most streaming services don't require boxes to rent, they are accessed through an app on the smart TV or on a device like Roku, FireTV, GoogleTV (android), etc. The downside is that you mostly have to launch the app and there are no numbers for channels so you have to search a bit when switching around channels. On YTTV there is a live TV guide and the home tab saves channels and shows to make it easy to move around. I love it but I could see it being challenging for some :-). There are also a bunch of free TV apps like Pluto, Tubi, Crackle, and others. Not to mention HD antennas for more free access. Good luck.

But, I just switched from my crappy grandfathered FiOS plan to a new one with a streaming option. For a few years, every new plan was going to cost me anywhere from $20 to $60 more per month. This one gives me double the channels and use of the FiOS TV app, which I couldn't access before. And, now I have YES, ESPN, and MSG, which I didn't have for a few years...for $25 LESS a month.

I have been reluctant to completely cut the cord because between the increased cost of internet without the triple play, and then so many individual subscriptions these days, it wouldn't really save money.

But it's not worth it without the combo package deal. I'd have to pay for youtube tv and internet separate and the price comes out to be slightly more than I am paying now with a combo deal. So there's no real point.

I have heard rumors though that youtube is looking into offering internet through google in the coming years. That's a game changer and allows them to offer a combo deal which is big time trouble for the cable companies.

In comment 15357180 Enzo said:

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streaming services offer both MSG and YES? I do like just flipping through channels on occasion, but I could get over not having that option. But MSG/YES are really the issue for me.

I'm not sure about MSG, but definitely not YES. Even the YES app doesn't stream without a cable subscription. The only other way is to use the cable provider's streaming App, if you have YES included in your plan. That was o e reason I switched my FiOS plan I stead of cutting the cord.

(Which was formerly ATT TV) has both MSG and YES if I’m not mistaken. Only one I’ve seen that does unless something has changed. Because directv offers both so it makes sense that they can offer them streaming as well.

Problem is by the time you get internet at the price you want, you’re paying the same amount. My cable bill (with hbo) is like 150 ish per month with the sports package. There’s no point in switching for me.

In comment 15357149 State Your Name said:

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Freaking hated it. There’s nothing better than turning on the TV and having it be TV. I don’t need to go into a freaking app to watch TV. TiVo rocks. Cutting the cord and watching a streaming TV service doesn’t save you a single Danny dime either.

Bingo!

In comment 15357241 Daniel in Kentucky said:

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And I have a very big family and network of friends.

You have a bunch right here.

went TiVo.....no regerts.
No Regerts! - ( New Window )

In my personal/professional life
Not some forum

Enjoy your cable
I have friends and we share our subscriptions

I’ll enjoy Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Apple TV, Peacock, ABC, CBS, Fox, TNT, Tubi, NFL Network, etc…
For $30 a month.

But then I watch almost none outside of some sports and some PBS shows. I think TV is mostly pretty awful.

I bought the first Roku box, when it was still called the "Netflix player" since it was before the box was spun off to Roku. I've been streaming since before 2008.

That said, up until the last few weeks, I have been paying FIOS for TV service. Why? For 2 reasons: First, the combo of internet and TV I had bundled meant that the TV service was not that expensive. Second, b/c my wife loved linear TV service from certain cable channels.

Most of my content is consumed via Plex. Many of it is acquired via no so legal means (although I pay for the services, it is often more convenient to download it into Plex so I have one UI to view). But it has worked for me for years.

I just recently moved, and did no pay for Tv service at my new address. B/c I no longer had the good bundle with FIOS and I think I can get away with it based on my wife's current viewing habits.

With the recent shutdown of locast, I do need a new solution for TV. Add in the fact that streaming TV does not like to provide NY locals in my area (despite traditional cable companies offering it), means I will need a solution in the next few weeks to watch the Giants.

In comment 15357111 Stan in LA said:

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Which includes FREE Sunday Ticket, Direct TV with Tivo can't be beat. Everyone I know who cut the cord all came back.

A couple of years ago I reluctantly was planning on going back to DTV for the ticket. They were 8 hours late on my installation and tried to throw on home phone even though i made it clear I only wanted the dish. Absolutely horrible customer service. Will never go back from streaming. No contract. Sunday Ticket is the only reason I can see someone doing the dish

I have fios triple play because I needed a home phone and it was cheaper with all the discounts to include cable at this time, however I don’t use it and returned the box so I did not have to pay monthly rental fees.

I was originally just doing Amazon prime. I added Disney for the year as a Christmas gift, I have a year apple plus free, I added on Netflix and the cheap Hulu version. Also recently downloaded the free peacock.

Sometimes I will do HBO for a month and binge watch it.

I also have an antenna for my tv and vpn plus game pass Europe.

To me what it has come down to is the streaming content is far a superior to what is on regular tv and most things great things onregular tv I get on Hulu.

I gave up on ESPN and NFL network as I find them to be pretty bad. I watch out sports clips online. NFL is really the only sport I care to watch now live and can catch great highlights elsewhere.

You can cord cut

and those are really the only two channels I miss on streaming, since Hulu dropped YES last offseason. Some have said Fubo carries them as well but no personal knowledge to share.

I miss having FiOS since moving out of NYC, but don't miss the TV lineup so much. Streaming picture quality can't be beat, tons of content. The cost overall has risen quickly, though. It's already 50% higher than 12-18 months ago as I'm paying just under $100 per month for Hulu, HBO Max, ESPN+ and another $100 for Optimum Gigabit.

at some point (and already has started with zip code checks and things of that nature). We will hit a point where streaming passes cable in cost, you can pretty much book it. Like most things in the digital age convenience will cost a premium.

I'm fine with that as long as they keep the no contract model (something I actually have with cable which is another reason why I stay - locked in to the price for life too).

The big thing with digital media content over the Internet is the paid subscription model, and fully expect providers to pursue it more as the pandemic winds down. Watch if a NetFlix starts doing it, the rest will quickly follow suit.

either that or big friends + family plans

Plus Hulu, prime, and Netflix. And I still can't watch the giants this weekend. Xfinity makes it super easy to switch between your apps. I figure I'm paying 2k a year for laziness. One of these days I'll figure something out.

3 years ago, never missed a thing. Can’t ever imagine going back unless it was next to nothing. Google TV.

argghh

In comment 15358538 GMAN4LIFE said:

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argghh

I don't know what type of TV you have, but you may be able to put an App on it for Lifetime (like you would for Netflix,etc.). On my Android TV I have YTTV, and also on my home page apps for Netflix, Amazon, Peacock, ESPN, SiriusXM, and others.

Also YTTV has Hallmark, almost the same thing IMO :)

During the pandemic. Got a good deal and it ended up being cheaper for a while. Just recut the cord again. $40 internet through Fios and the streaming apps. We get the news and jeopardy OTA and use various apps like Netflix for shows. Back under $80 per month. Using our kids .edu email for Student SundayTicket.

and don't plan on ever going back. The biggest thing to cope with when dropping cable is that internet costs go up without a bundle. I was paying $65/mo with Fios but more recently got it down to $40/mo, which is solid.

For live TV, Sling TV is the way to go. $35 for "Blue" gets you a ton of popular channels and comes with DVR. You can upgrade for about $10 to $20 to get a bigger sports package. I stream it on a Fire TV cube and a pair of Echo speakers wirelessly connected in stereo - it's a very simple set up that i really enjoy. And I have Roku in the other rooms.

From there I got Paramount+ for the kids and live CBS broadcast, and Disney+. Saved a ton of money by purchasing a yearly subscription at launch for both of them (I average $9 a month combined for both of them).

I also do Netflix for $8 month (one screen), Amazon Prime average $11 month, and HBO Max $15 month (may cancel soon though).

So all together I pay about $118 a month for my internet and television services after my one time purchase of streaming devices. Still pricy, but it's also very flexible - if I ever get tired of using a service I can cancel anytime.

While I never did cut cable; I did not buy it at my previous residence. Now that I have moved to my new place, I did in fact buy it and could not be any more glad. I pay 65 for internet --which I would have to anyway--and 55 for basic cable incluing the router rental.

One thing I like about cable is simply flipping through channels at like 1AM when I get home from a night out with friends. This happened recently and I watched an Alfred Hitchcock presents episode. Something that would never happen if streaming because I never think of it. Also any type of over the air antennae pretty much sucks these days. So no more driving to my parents housr to watch a Giants game because the reception is terrible.

If you are really pretending that Sling tv is any good and comparable to cable -- I amo not even going to continue the coversation. I had it for months -- there was never anything on and for another 30 a month -- why not get cable? Hulu live tv also cancelled ... same money so why not be able to flip through channels and not deal with antenne bs?

In comment 15357231 mittenedman said:

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That's a biggie. They are charging $20 per month for 4K but you can also stream to an unlimited # of devices instead of 3.

It's only for college football unfortunately, was thinking about getting it, but don't think they are carrying pro.

but I had 5 TV's on DirecTV all with HD and receivers, etc.

I trimmed that down to 2 after learning my kids in 3 years never once watched TV - only apps.

And I switched to Verizon FiOS for TV - since I already had FiOS for internet - my bundle on Verizon with the two TV's/DVRs, gig internet, netflix, disney plus, Apple TV (through Verizon Wireless) and all premium channels except cinemax = less than just my DirecTV bill - to which I had to then add internet.

I've looked at complete cord cutting, but it doesn't seem like if I add back all the channels I want I'd save any money - HBO Max, Showtime, Starz, local TV service, etc. and then add internet to it

so, I am not a cord cutter, but I did ditch DTV and:

In comment 15359202 pjcas18 said:

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but I had 5 TV's on DirecTV all with HD and receivers, etc. I trimmed that down to 2 after learning my kids in 3 years never once watched TV - only apps. And I switched to Verizon FiOS for TV - since I already had FiOS for internet - my bundle on Verizon with the two TV's/DVRs, gig internet, netflix, disney plus, Apple TV (through Verizon Wireless) and all premium channels except cinemax = less than just my DirecTV bill - to which I had to then add internet. I've looked at complete cord cutting, but it doesn't seem like if I add back all the channels I want I'd save any money - HBO Max, Showtime, Starz, local TV service, etc. and then add internet to it so, I am not a cord cutter, but I did ditch DTV and:

and I should mention the other three TV's all have HD satellite antennas and get local TV, but all have Roku, Amazon fire stick or Apple TV (some have two of them). with Netflix, Amazon prime, Apple TV, Disney plus, HBO, Showtime, Starz apps as well as several apps that you get free with your cable subscription.