So, you hate paying $100 or more a month for cable, especially since the price will keep going up year after year. You want out from under. Technology to the rescue!
I’ve been living cable-free for six months now, and loving it. Here’s a quick guide for all of you who hate cable, broken down by requirement.
What You’ll Need, Bare Minimum:
- A Roku 2 XD ($80)
- An over-the-air TV antenna ($30)
- Subscriptions to Netflix Streaming and Hulu ($8 each a month)
- An account with Crackle (free)
- An Amazon Instant Video account
Honestly, for most people, this will be absolutely everything they need. Most people don’t want to cut the cable because of shows like “American Idol” or “House,” but you can just catch these on air. Ditto a lot of major sporting events. This has the added benefit of you getting for free what you previously had to pay for. Yes, cable pays to carry the broadcast networks, and passes the cost on to you.
For most broadcast TV and basic cable, Hulu, Netflix, and Crackle, which is basically Sony’s reply to Hulu, will fill the gap. You won’t see it day of broadcast, but that’s not that big a deal for most people. Anything else you may be missing you can usually find on Amazon Instant Video for two bucks an episode; reality TV junkies can get a fix for ten bucks a season, usually. Don’t get Amazon Prime just for the videos — there’s a lot of overlap between Hulu and Netflix, and currently the service isn’t worth the $80 a year Amazon wants (although you do get free shipping).
It’s not a perfect one-to-one match. HBO will only let you rent episodes of their shows, and usually for prices that are inflated: a buck thirty-nine to rent an episode is pretty crappy. Food Network is completely MIA, for no explicable reason. But 99% of what you want to watch is on one of the four services.
But what if you’re a hardcore sports junkie? Well, you can still cut the cord, but it’ll hurt your wallet. The Roku will cover baseball and hockey fans. MLB.tv Deluxe is $120 a year, and NHL GameCenter Live is $170 a year. Football fanatics should buy a PS3 used ($200) and DirectTV’s Sunday Ticket ($340). College football and basketball fans, as well as NBA fans, should first check to make sure their ISP supports ESPN3, and if it does, get an XBox360 used ($200) and an XBox Gold subscription ($60 a year).
In short, there’s no reason to pay through the nose to a cable company. Unless you’re a sports fan, but even then, you should be able to keep your bills down.
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Great stuff. I cut the cord last summer and haven’t looked back with the help of Netflix and Hulu.
I fear now, though, that my cable company will eventually notice this trend and start raising my internet bill. This is the golden age people, enjoy it while it lasts.
Not including initial equipment costs, what’s your total expenditure per month? (Assuming all viewings through legal channels)
Does Netflix Streaming now offer new shows as well or still just the past seasons?
Really want to take this route, but until MLB.com lifts its inane blackout rules, I’m not getting to see my local nine. I still don’t get the point of the blackout rules. You want me NOT to pay you money directly so that I instead watch it on cable where you are paid indirectly?
Second on the expenditure per month question including internet cost. We have a package that includes cable and internet, which is more than I want to pay but is only a little more than internet alone.
I cut the cord about 6 months ago. I don’t do Netflix any more, I just wasn’t watching much through it. My typical monthly expenditure is $7.99 for HuluPlus, perhaps $12 for Futurama episodes through Amazon (yes, Hulu has it but only through the computer, I want to watch it on my TV.) Even if you have to purchase 3-4 shows a week, it comes out cheaper than the $80 you’ll likely be spending on cable/dish.
I was already spending 50 bucks or so on the Internet so I don’t count that toward my TV. I’d have it if I had no TV. I’ve found that you’ll want something like consistent 9-10 MBPs if you want to watch 1080p HD.
I’m using the new Roku 2 and I absolutely love it. Way more solid than the Roku 1.
Also note that the PS3 has Netflix, Hulu and Vudu apps, but you end up going through the Sony network so you know how that’s been lately.
Lastly, NHL Game Center Live is the same price as Center Ice on cable/dish, so you’d be spending the same for the zillion games you get each week. For me that’s not an extra cost because I’d be spending it one way or another for my hockey fix.
The only thing I miss is Food Network but, you know, those imbeciles really need to get their act together and join the 20th century Internet. (Yes, I know it’s the 21st century, but they don’t even have full episodes streaming on their website. That’s a 90′s website if I’ve ever seen one.)
Anyway, I’m nobody, but I highly recommend cutting that cable/dish. The only way that you can’t really do it 100% is if you’re an NFL fan. Those guys must have gotten into some exclusive deal that’s screwing them now.
Steve Holt!, I don’t know what’s up with the blackout rules, either. The NHL does the same thing. With the NFL it used to be (maybe still is) that the idea was to black out a game to encourage you to go out and watch it live, then sometimes if the game was a near-sellout some cable outfit would buy the rest of the tickets so they could lift the blackout and make some advertising money off the TV broadcast.
But in the NHL and I think MLB, sellouts don’t matter, you can’t watch the thing anyway, unless you subscribe to the local cable channel that carries it. It’s kinda stupid and makes me wonder who came up with these deals and how having less eyeballs on the TV is good business.
I’m fortunate that I recently moved into the Sharks local area and I hate their broadcast team and their fans, so at least now I get to see all my beloved LA Kings games.
Total expenditure per month: $16 for the services, maybe $20 for shows depending on what I want to buy.
Cutting the cord isn’t for everybody and depends on the shows you watch or can give up watching. I made an app to figure out where your shows are available and create a plan for switching. So far users of the app have found an average of $1,500 in five-year savings. Pretty awesome!
tv.appswers.com