Cable TV Cord Cutting - How I Did It and The Streaming Services
Over the past few years, TV cord cutting or being a cord cutter seems to have gained in popularity.
The increasing availability and variety of streaming services in combination with the increasing prices of cable service where you pay more every year and get less value finally led me to consider making the switch.
The really old days of cable and DVDs
When I was a kid, we didn't have cable. There were three broadcast stations in Scotts Valley, channels 8, 11 and 46 (NBC, ABC, CBS). I remember the day when the neighbors got cable and I saw Mtv for the first time when I was in high school. Years later, I ended up with a mid-range cable package. We would rent VHS tapes and later DVDs to watch movies. Over time it went from the local video store to Blockbuster, to Blockbuster online, and then Netflix (founded by one of my former coworkers).
Getting into streaming
Netflix's business model change from focusing on DVD rentals to streaming was my first time considering paying for a streaming service. It's funny that Comcast cable are actually the ones who made it possible when I was able to switch from my excruciatingly slow 1.5 Mbps AT&T DSL to cable internet with pretty nice speed.
As time went on, I tried every streaming service that I came across. Hulu, Yahoo View, Crunchyroll, Funimation, DirecTV Now, CBS All Access, Playstation Vue, DramaFever, VRV, Formula 1 TV, Sling TV, and of course all of the broadcast and cable network's web sites and apps.
Discovering that broadcast TV with a digital antenna is pretty good
My biggest epiphany was when I wanted to get a Tivo and BestBuy had a sale where the Tivo was bundled with a free HD antenna. I thought why not give it a try. I wasn't expecting much but I was actually able to get a really good signal from the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, PBS). It was nothing like the static with an antenna in the old days.
Cutting back on cable
I challenged myself to stop watching new shows on cable so I wouldn't get hooked on them. I would just mostly watch new shows that I liked on the broadcast networks and stream on Netflix. Soon after that, I decided that it was time to cut back on cable. Xfinity offered me a good deal for a year of internet + limited basic cable (mostly what I had from my antenna plus home shopping networks and Discovery channel) plus HBO. That cut my bill in half, saving almost $70 per month. I subscribed to DirecTV now for a couple months to catch up on a few cable shows.
Then comes the cable price increase and cutting back further
Of course, after the good deal for a year, the price went up. The cost of the package went up. The additional fees like local broadcast fee went up. And my bill increased by about 25%. By that point I felt like it wasn't worth it to continue with any cable TV. It was nice to have the streaming through the Xfinity mobile apps and I found that they worked very well but I was willing to give that up. I almost never watched HBO so didn't mind giving that up.
What I ended up with
In the end, I'm probably paying close to what I would be paying for just cable TV, but I feel like I'm getting so much more.
The increasing availability and variety of streaming services in combination with the increasing prices of cable service where you pay more every year and get less value finally led me to consider making the switch.
The really old days of cable and DVDs
When I was a kid, we didn't have cable. There were three broadcast stations in Scotts Valley, channels 8, 11 and 46 (NBC, ABC, CBS). I remember the day when the neighbors got cable and I saw Mtv for the first time when I was in high school. Years later, I ended up with a mid-range cable package. We would rent VHS tapes and later DVDs to watch movies. Over time it went from the local video store to Blockbuster, to Blockbuster online, and then Netflix (founded by one of my former coworkers).
Getting into streaming
Netflix's business model change from focusing on DVD rentals to streaming was my first time considering paying for a streaming service. It's funny that Comcast cable are actually the ones who made it possible when I was able to switch from my excruciatingly slow 1.5 Mbps AT&T DSL to cable internet with pretty nice speed.
As time went on, I tried every streaming service that I came across. Hulu, Yahoo View, Crunchyroll, Funimation, DirecTV Now, CBS All Access, Playstation Vue, DramaFever, VRV, Formula 1 TV, Sling TV, and of course all of the broadcast and cable network's web sites and apps.
Discovering that broadcast TV with a digital antenna is pretty good
My biggest epiphany was when I wanted to get a Tivo and BestBuy had a sale where the Tivo was bundled with a free HD antenna. I thought why not give it a try. I wasn't expecting much but I was actually able to get a really good signal from the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, PBS). It was nothing like the static with an antenna in the old days.
Cutting back on cable
I challenged myself to stop watching new shows on cable so I wouldn't get hooked on them. I would just mostly watch new shows that I liked on the broadcast networks and stream on Netflix. Soon after that, I decided that it was time to cut back on cable. Xfinity offered me a good deal for a year of internet + limited basic cable (mostly what I had from my antenna plus home shopping networks and Discovery channel) plus HBO. That cut my bill in half, saving almost $70 per month. I subscribed to DirecTV now for a couple months to catch up on a few cable shows.
Then comes the cable price increase and cutting back further
Of course, after the good deal for a year, the price went up. The cost of the package went up. The additional fees like local broadcast fee went up. And my bill increased by about 25%. By that point I felt like it wasn't worth it to continue with any cable TV. It was nice to have the streaming through the Xfinity mobile apps and I found that they worked very well but I was willing to give that up. I almost never watched HBO so didn't mind giving that up.
What I ended up with
In the end, I'm probably paying close to what I would be paying for just cable TV, but I feel like I'm getting so much more.
- I still have Xfinity internet which is great (after I had to pay them to replace the faulty cable under the street that had been spliced and taped and run through a conduit that filled with water that shorted it out and made the service go out all the time). My internet is $69.95 per month and works very well now.
- Netflix at $10.99 per month is kind of a given because my daughter likes to watch shows on there a lot. I like the original movies and binge watching some original series on there too. In the future, I may not keep my subscription going all the time and just subscribe when I want to watch a lot like during the summer when there aren't as many good broadcast TV shows on.
- Yahoo View (free) is a hidden gem and kind of equivalent to the old free version of Hulu. It's a great place to stream a lot of broadcast TV shows from one place. I've enjoyed it for a long time and will continue enjoying it until Oath inevitably kills if off.
- I'm currently subscribing to Hulu ($11.99 per month with no commercials) because I wanted to watch Handmaid's Tale (great show) and Castle Rock along with catching up with shows like The Librarians final season.
- I like watching anime shows and there are multiple good choices for that. My favorite is VRV because it best support the Chrome browser plug-in that lets me watch video at faster speeds. I still have a standalone Funimation subscription and have had a Crunchyroll subscription in the past. I may just start subscribing to VRV Premium ($9.99 per month) for the months when I really want to watch animes once my Funimation yearly subscription expires.
- For watching Korean and Chinese shows, DramaFever on VRV is my choice. I got really frustrated with subtitles not showing up with DramaFever on the Roku but DramaFever on the VRV app on Roku works great and on the VRV web site.
- For car racing, I subscribe to Formula 1 TV for $11.99 per month. This is really the only "sport" that I watch. I like to see the live races. And this web site and app give a great experience including being able to click to see the live in-car feed for any driver at any time. Much better than just the regular broadcast on the expensive cable package.
- I will still resubscribe to DirectTV Now or Sling TV from time to time to catch up on shows like The Detour on TBS that I still find really entertaining
When I add all of those up, I'm actually still spending less than I paid for cable and getting access to the shows and types of shows that I really enjoy - so much more than I had with just cable.
I'm a little over two weeks into this latest cord cutting experiment and really don't see any reason to go back.
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