Let's talk about cutting cable

[disneysteve]

We are finally on the verge of cutting cable. I want to hear all about your experience doing so, what services you've found most beneficial to replace it, and any other tips you can share.

I just ordered a Mohu Leaf antenna, recommended by our cousins who cut the cord a few years ago. I got the better model (the Leaf 50) refurbished for $43.58. That should get us all of our local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, etc.).

We already have Netflix, Prime, and Disney+ and will continue to have those.

What will be missing is some standard cable networks that we watch a lot: CNN, BBC America, History, FX, Food Network, etc. We can get all of those and more on Sling for $30/month, which is very reasonable. Is that the best option? Are there other options that you've gone with instead?

Thanks for any info.

Also, how much are you paying for internet once you cancel cable? Obviously, we won't be getting the bundle discount anymore so I expect to pay more for internet but the overall price will still be a lot lower.

We're also planning to finally cancel our land line phone. At this point, the ONLY person who uses our land line is my mom but we also get 10-20 spam calls a day, every day. My mom is just going to have to start calling us with her cell phone.

[rennigade]

If you're not worried about local channels like abc, nbc, cbs, etc...sling is the way to go. There isnt even a close second.

We use youtube tv. It has all the local channels plus all the extra things minus the history channel which sucks. Youtube tv has unlimited dvr. Again, its not as awesome as one would think. Its expensive though. You're not saving a lot with youtube tv. We use fire sticks on all our tv's to get the youtube app. We cant get local channels with an antenna so we have to pay up. Im not sure how seamless that will be for you, using sling tv, then wanting to check local channels. You'll have to exit the sling app and go to your local channels. Not a big deal, but some extra steps.

We never had cable/bundle and its a smaller provider. We pay around $97/month for 200mbps.

[disneysteve]

If you're not worried about local channels like abc, nbc, cbs, etc...sling is the way to go. There isnt even a close second.

We cant get local channels with an antenna so we have to pay up.

We can get local channels with an antenna so the one-time $43 cost should be well worth it. Looks like YouTube TV is $65/mo., double the cost of Sling. Hopefully switching between the antenna feed and Sling isn't too cumbersome. Is Sling an app? We have a smart TV in the bedroom and Apple TV in the family room. If we can get a Sling app on each of those, that would be no more difficult than going to Netflix or Disney+ is now.

[ua_guy]

What I know about cutting cable (I haven't) is that a lot of people I know who did, eventually got it hooked back up. People watch a lot of TV in general and it's great to be able to just turn the TV on and surf sometimes. It's hard to do that sometimes when you've got multiple devices, apps, services etc. To replace cable seems like it ends up in a huge bundle of subscriptions and services.

Internet is all over the board. Cable, DSL, Fiber, Satellite, Cellular, long range wi-fi. Cost varies with type of service and speeds, and any other bundled services. If you're cutting cable, it might behoove you to shop around with the different types and providers of internet (not cable!) to see what package might be most economical.

[disneysteve]

What I know about cutting cable (I haven't) is that a lot of people I know who did, eventually got it hooked back up.

Oh, that hasn't been my experience at all. I know many people who ditched cable and never looked back. Sling would definitely give us all of the channels that we watch regularly. And the antenna for local channels. That should be more than enough for us, along with the subscriptions we already have.

[rennigade]

People watch a lot of TV in general and it's great to be able to just turn the TV on and surf sometimes. It's hard to do that sometimes when you've got multiple devices, apps, services etc. To replace cable seems like it ends up in a huge bundle of subscriptions and services.

For a while we were downloading things and watching them from a computer (hooked up to a tv.) I still get my movies that way...and pc's are networked throughout house. But its a pain. Have to turn on pc, use mouse to navigate, different remote for sound. Doesnt sound like the end of the world but it gets old fast. Thats why we went with youtube tv. Firestick turns on tv, navigate to youtube tv app and you're done. I would have been fine with sling for $30/month but wife wanted the major networks, abc, nbc, cbs, fox, etc etc. Those couple channels basically cost an additional $40/month.

[rennigade]

We can get local channels with an antenna so the one-time $43 cost should be well worth it. Looks like YouTube TV is $65/mo., double the cost of Sling. Hopefully switching between the antenna feed and Sling isn't too cumbersome. Is Sling an app? We have a smart TV in the bedroom and Apple TV in the family room. If we can get a Sling app on each of those, that would be no more difficult than going to Netflix or Disney+ is now.

Sling is an app. I used it for a few days just to test it out, I wanted to see the interface, which I liked a lot. We have firestick, and there is a sling app you download and log into your account. Its a one time login. If you have a smart tv, sling may be on there or you may be able to download, im not sure. From my experience, built in smart tv apps are garbage. They're so slow. May be worth it to fork out $40 for a roku stick or 4k fire stick. Make sure its the 4k one, its newer an faster. Im not sure about apple tv but my guess is that will work fine.

[Snicks]

We are considering cancelling the land line. As for the rest of cable I don't know. I would like to down grade the channels but Xfinity doesn't seem to let you down grade. And you in electronic purgatory waiting for someone to answer the phone, etc

[QuarterMillionMan]

The cable TV companies are highway robbers in my view. I was paying $120/month for cable TV maybe 5 years when I cancelled it. The cable TV itself was $69 but all the taxes, FCC fees, the set-top box rental fees, etc, The fees added about $49 to the cable TV price of $69. Yes Sling, Hulu TV, Fubo TV, any streaming TV is good. And the price will not have all the extra fees that the cable TV companies tack on which IMHO is a rip off.

[kork13]

I haven't had cable in the 16 years since graduating high school, except for 1.5 yrs when my roommates right out of college insisted on it, and ~6 months this last winter while I was on an extended TDY, and cable was included in my short-term apartment's rent.

I love not having cable. It's an incredible time suck that I'm happy to be free of. Sure, we waste our time in other ways... But at least alot of that time is spent playing games, reading, cooking, or doing other things that don't involve sitting on my butt for hours on end with zero mental exertion.

[Captain Save]

We are finally on the verge of cutting cable. I want to hear all about your experience doing so, what services you've found most beneficial to replace it, and any other tips you can share.

I just ordered a Mohu Leaf antenna, recommended by our cousins who cut the cord a few years ago. I got the better model (the Leaf 50) refurbished for $43.58. That should get us all of our local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, etc.).

We already have Netflix, Prime, and Disney+ and will continue to have those.

What will be missing is some standard cable networks that we watch a lot: CNN, BBC America, History, FX, Food Network, etc. We can get all of those and more on Sling for $30/month, which is very reasonable. Is that the best option? Are there other options that you've gone with instead?

Thanks for any info.

Also, how much are you paying for internet once you cancel cable? Obviously, we won't be getting the bundle discount anymore so I expect to pay more for internet but the overall price will still be a lot lower.

We're also planning to finally cancel our land line phone. At this point, the ONLY person who uses our land line is my mom but we also get 10-20 spam calls a day, every day. My mom is just going to have to start calling us with her cell phone.

If you don't care about sports.. Philo is the best bang for your buck. All those streaming TV get to be expensive the more sports channel you add. Sports is still cable's tv saving grace since that's the only thing people really care about watching live.

[srblanco7]

We are finally on the verge of cutting cable. I want to hear all about your experience doing so, what services you've found most beneficial to replace it, and any other tips you can share.

I just ordered a Mohu Leaf antenna, recommended by our cousins who cut the cord a few years ago. I got the better model (the Leaf 50) refurbished for $43.58. That should get us all of our local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, etc.).

We already have Netflix, Prime, and Disney+ and will continue to have those.

What will be missing is some standard cable networks that we watch a lot: CNN, BBC America, History, FX, Food Network, etc. We can get all of those and more on Sling for $30/month, which is very reasonable. Is that the best option? Are there other options that you've gone with instead?

Thanks for any info.

Also, how much are you paying for internet once you cancel cable? Obviously, we won't be getting the bundle discount anymore so I expect to pay more for internet but the overall price will still be a lot lower.

We're also planning to finally cancel our land line phone. At this point, the ONLY person who uses our land line is my mom but we also get 10-20 spam calls a day, every day. My mom is just going to have to start calling us with her cell phone.

Did the same several months ago (including getting rid of land line). We have a Hulu/Disney/ESPN+ bundle that gets us live TV. We also have Netflix and Prime. A bit over the top with streaming options, but total cost for all is still far less than what we were paying for a FIOS bundle and rented equipment. We have FIOS internet 300/300 Mbps service for $50/month (we purchased the router rather than renting). We have multiple TV's and use both Fire Sticks and Apple TV for streaming. No strong preference between the two and the Fire Sticks are less expensive.

[disneysteve]

We don't care about sports so that helps. Sling has two options, one sports-centric and one not. Same price but we'd go with the non-sports package which has more channels we would actually watch.

[disneysteve]

We have multiple TV's and use both Fire Sticks and Apple TV for streaming. No strong preference between the two and the Fire Sticks are less expensive.

We have 2 TVs (and might get a third). The family room TV has Apple TV. The bedroom TV is a Roku smart TV. If we get a 3rd TV in the sitting room, that would also be a smart TV.

[Snicks]

If we cut cable, we would wind up with WIndstream for internet. We live in a rural area so not a lot of options. And, their internet is via the phone dsl lines versus cable so not as good.