I want to unplug my CABLE - what do I need?

Javery

Javery

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OK, I'm thinking of pulling the plug on my cable subscription.  What services would you keep to still make sure you are "covered" for the most part?  I'm thinking Netfilx, Hulu+ and Amazon Prime.  I'll also have access to HBOGO from a family member.  I've been looking into Aereo as well for local TV (CBS, NBC, FOX, etc.).  I'm thinking I can get the cost into the $30/month range instead of the $150/month range I'm currently in.    Two things I'll miss are HGTV and ESPN but other than that I think I'm covered.

Have any of you done this?  What has it been like? 

 
Javery said:
OK, I'm thinking of pulling the plug on my cable subscription. What services would you keep to still make sure you are "covered" for the most part? I'm thinking Netfilx, Hulu+ and Amazon Prime. I'll also have access to HBOGO from a family member. I've been looking into Aereo as well for local TV (CBS, NBC, FOX, etc.). I'm thinking I can get the cost into the $30/month range instead of the $150/month range I'm currently in. Two things I'll miss are HGTV and ESPN but other than that I think I'm covered.

Have any of you done this? What has it been like?
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First thing I would recommend doing is figuring out the cost of internet. Secondly, I would recommend you call up your cable provider or competitor and see what deals they are currently offering. Tell them you are considering switching over to their competitor if they don't match. You should not be paying for than $80 a month for cable and internet.

If the difference in price is still too great then go ahead and pull the plug. There are some pretty good sport streaming sites which will cover your ESPN itch. I've never pulled the plug myself because I'm willing to pay $80 a month for the convenience.

P.S. Don't skim on internet!

 
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Good point about internet.  There will be a base cost to that for sure.  I have FIOS right now and they provide internet, cable TV and the land line.  I want to ditch cable TV and the land line.

 
Javery said:
Good point about internet. There will be a base cost to that for sure. I have FIOS right now and they provide internet, cable TV and the land line. I want to ditch cable TV and the land line.
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I have the same FIOS package as well. My contract is up in December, at which point I will have to call them up. I'm currently paying $80 a month for 1 HD DVR box and 1 SD box. If they are not interested in allowing me to continue at the same rate, I will switch the account over to my wife's name (new customer) or switch over to optimum. My worry is that the savings won't be sufficient to justify ditching cable especially considering the cost of internet. FIOS 50/25 - $60 for the first 12 months and $80 there after. That is pretty pricey for just internet.

 
I run Netflix hulu and amazon. I supplement this with mlb in the summer because I don't get blacked out of Rangers games.

Honestly there isn't much I miss with regards to not having cable. The only thing that kind of stinks is that you have to be much more active in finding stuff to watch.

As far as internet goes, we had standard road runner (15/1) and it was fine. Recently upgraded to (50/5) but the streaming isn't all that much better.
 
The only thing to keep in mind about "borrowing" someone's HBO GO information is that HBO GO Terms of Services does forbid you from sharing the account with another person, so they could dump you for it.

Funny thing is that the HBO CEO says they know when you're sharing your HBO GO information and he doesn't care:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16376813-hbo-go-knows-youre-sharing-passwords-doesnt-care

If you keep with Hulu Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime, you should be good for most of the main items, if you don't mind them in some sense of delay.    iTunes might be needed once in a while for things that end up there first for some amount of time, though that's pretty few and far between.

If you're on FIOS, you should have no issue with a high-enough speed for streaming, though the upstream speeds might suffer a bit.

I also echo the suggestion of talking to Verizon, asking for their retention department, explain the situation and see what they can do for you.  You might be surprised about how much they want to keep you as a customer, either way.

Relying on Aereo for local TV might be a short-term thing, depending on how their case going to the Supreme Court works out for them.    You could just get a HDTV antenna for the TVs that you'd want to watch local channels on and skip relying on Aereo.

I have Charter's 30/3 package (only one they offer), which has never been an issue for streaming, though it overprovisions so I get more than 30MBps downstream.

 
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Don't know much about Aereo but I get pretty good reception with just a basic antenna over the air. 

 
Just moved to Canada, after looking around Rogers was the "least inconvenient" option. We needed unlimited internet and most places charged at least $60/month here for reasonable speeds AND unlimited. With Rogers, we got all three services (cable, phone, & internet) and it costs us about $135/month, but we get the channels we want, a home phone which is nice to have instead of using the cellphone all the time, and unlimited internet with 30 down, 2 up. yeah, we shouldn't be paying that much, but...Canada.

Having tried Roku with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crunchyroll, and NHL Gamecenter Live, we were paying $55/month for internet (20 down, 2 up) with Time Warner, and then $35 on top of that, so we were still paying at least $90/month just to have internet and *most* of the shows we wanted to watch. Good luck with the decision. As much as I hate paying more, the convenience of having all three services is worth the extra $20-30 a month we pay (comparatively).

IF you do cut cable, make sure you have at least 25MB+ for your download 35+ would be better (and unlimited). The first month after we cut cable years ago we made the mistake of sticking with 10MB down. It was horrible until we bit the bullet and upgraded our internet package.

 
Sports and the cost of Internet without also having tv service have kept me from doing it.

There just aren't good HD streaming options for most sports yet, especially college sports which are my main interest. Too much hassle to have to hope to find an illegal stream of decent quality.

I'm just paying $80 a month for a year with Comcast for 25mbps down an HD-DVR and the digital preferred lineup (had to go up one tier to get ESPNU).
 
usickenme said:
Don't know much about [background=#23252b]Aereo but I get pretty good reception with just a basic antenna over the air. [/background]
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You can stick a paper clip in your TV's coax input and get reception. I got most channels by plugging in an old Genesis RF connector and then extending that with a paperclip. If you have this crap laying around, it costs nothing to try it.

That being said, there's hardly anything worth watching on network TV these days. All the good shows are on cable. I usually wait for the basic cable shows to head to Netflix before bingewatching them.

So glad I cut the cord years ago. It can be difficult to compare cable costs vs. all the disparate services you can subscribe to. For example, how do you compare the value of Amazon Prime when it also comes with 2-day shipping? The Internet connection I would be paying for anyway regardless of whether or not Netflix, Hulu, etc, existed.

Even if it's not a huge savings, I'm just glad to not be supporting the cable TV business model.
 
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I got rid of cable last summer, best thing I ever did, wish I'd done it years ago.  Truth be told I wasn't watching much tv anyway.

I have Netflix and Amazon, I use the Twitch app on my 360 quite a bit as well.

Made time for me to hit the game backlog.

 
I've been solely on Netflix for over a year since I stopped getting local tv through the building's coax. My internet bill is $37.88 for 50/15Mbps. Basic cable would've cost me an additional $20 a month. Yeah...no thanks.

I find that all I do now is read and game. Good times!

If I was into sports, I could see keeping cable though.
 
Going on about 5 years without cable now, haven't really missed it.  You can use an antenna to pick up most channels, so that has at least some sports if you want, you can also stream ESPN3 I think if you have comcast or another company that supports it.  We have Amazon prime, Netflix, and Hulu Plus, but we don't really use Hulu Plus much.  I also just end up subscribing to series on Amazon if I want to really watch it right now.  I'm curious to see how Aereo ends up working out though.

 
ESPN3 is usually not available if you don't have TV service with the ISP too.  At least for TV providing ones like Comcast.  I don't think it was always that way, but definitely is with Comcast now as I thought about only getting their internet as I could get most of my team's games on ESPN3 or the networks over the air.  But it was a no go with them or AT&T where were my only two options--well there was some small DSL company I could have goen with if I opted to transfer my DirecTV over there--but they only went up to 10MBPS and didn't support ESPN3 so I just went with Comcast for the higher speed and ESPN3 (saves buying the college pay perview packages to get my teams game since I live way out of area for them).

 
dmaul1114 said:
ESPN3 is usually not available if you don't have TV service with the ISP too. At least for TV providing ones like Comcast. I don't think it was always that way, but definitely is with Comcast now as I thought about only getting their internet as I could get most of my team's games on ESPN3 or the networks over the air. But it was a no go with them or AT&T where were my only two options--well there was some small DSL company I could have goen with if I opted to transfer my DirecTV over there--but they only went up to 10MBPS and didn't support ESPN3 so I just went with Comcast for the higher speed and ESPN3 (saves buying the college pay perview packages to get my teams game since I live way out of area for them).
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Ahh, maybe they recently changed it, but I used to just have internet and still got ESPN3 through Comcast as recently as last year around this time. Maybe it depends on where you're at regionally.

 
soulvengeance said:
Ahh, maybe they recently changed it, but I used to just have internet and still got ESPN3 through Comcast as recently as last year around this time. Maybe it depends on where you're at regionally.
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I just have DSL through the local phone company, and I get ESPN3 access from them.

I only have a 3mb connection, and everything I've tried streams great for me. I don't know why some of you need a 15mb+ connection.

 
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Yeah, if you have a stable 3MBPS the only thing you'll miss out on is some reduced picture quality in some apps--i.e. probably can't get the Super HD in Netflix for stuff available at that resolution and so on.

 
I'm lucky to work for a cable company. At one point I was paying $120 a month for cable, phone and internet and we didn't have any additional packages. It is nice having every possible channel and highest internet speed and pay nothing per month now.

To the OP, look into a Roku device and google search "Roku and myplex". It is a an app you can load onto the Roku which will give you access to most cable channels without any cost.

 
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