After much discussion on here, I am experimenting with cutting the cord this week. Signed up for YouTube TV free trial and one other service to get Hallmark for my wife (and I actually like those sappy Christmas movies too!).
I am actually going to get more sports channels than I had with my cable TV. If all goes well this week, I will cut the cord next week.
Switched about a month ago to YouTube TV… love it. Key is having fast enough internet to avoid the buffering. Not had that problem at all.
Let me know how it goes. I got DirecTV through CenturyLink. I’m paying almost $400 a month, looking for something much cheaper. Internet and tv. Appreciate any feedback you got
YouTube TV with Showtime + fastest AT&T Internet = $150
We were not paying that much, but too much. I will let you know how it goes. Getting internet from Conway Corp is pretty cheap, so I am going to up the amount of Internet and still will pay a lot less if this works.
Cut mine like 9 months ago, Matt was a huge help. Let me state I’m very none techie and was kinda nervous about it but when my internet and cable bill hit well into the 300s a month I did it, and it’s been great. Daytona beach hog reached out and told me about a iptv provider area51 man loving it. I got 2 tv s hooked up for 13 a month upped my internet to 100 mbps xfinity 89 a month. I literally have every channel in the us and prox 20 foreign countries in addiction to nba pas mlb pass nfl ticket college pass. Sec network ppv fights can’t even list it all for 102 a month.
I’ll be doing the same this week. Going with YouTube TV.
In LR, Just switched from directv at ~150/mo to YouTube tv at 50/mo. Get basically all the channels we were using including SEC network. Use att high speed internet at 40/mo but I need that regardless. Can use up to 5 TVs on youtube account -so believe I can watch at work also… also still pay 12/mo for Netflix- no change there. Working very well so far.
My only question so far, do you get the SEC Network Alternative Channel on YouTube TV? I don’t see it, but then, there hasn’t been a need for it yet.
Yes I believe you do. I’m on conway Corp internet and purchased the one gig bc it’s $10 more than the 100 mbps but they give you a free router so it’s a wash.
Note: hot links below may need to fixed
I cut the cord in June 2012 when I moved from Oak Ridge, TN to North Little Rock to be near family and friends. I bought a cheap High Definition indoor antenna from Walmart to access local channels for free.
I later signed up with Comcast for basic internet service and shared my son’s Netflix account and eventually his Amazon Prime account.
A May 2019 article Do Video Streaming Services Care If You Share Your Account ? gives a good review of streaming services and whether or not they care if you share an account. Most do not. I encourage you to read that article here:
For a brief history of Steaming TV services read this Wikipedia article (at least the History section in it):
A very good September 2019 article in PCMag breaks down the best video streaming services for your money, whether you’re looking to completely replace cable or watch the latest original content on-demand:
Finally, Cord Cutter News provides up to date information and stories on what’s happening right now in the world of cord cutting. You can also find Cord Cutter videos posted on YouTube every Mon - Sat.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/
I stream ESPN, ESPN 2, and SEC Channels using a 3rd generation Apple TV device or a 1st generation ROKU device (free from my son and daughter-in-law) on a 2008 46” Samsung 1080p LCD HDTV (also free from my son).
Yeah, I’m cheap but free is free and most Millennials (like my sons and daughters-in-law) like to have the latest and greatest technology. I gladly accept all TVs, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, PCs and computer monitors.
Until a few months ago I was watching on a hand-me-down 2002 40” SONY 720p and, for me, the picture quality was fine.
It’s like when I grew up in the 50s and 60s without air conditioning at home or in schools. I don’t miss what I’ve never had.
I currently pay Spectrum $39.99/mo (includes all taxes and fees) for high speed internet up to 400 Mbps. Their modem is included in the monthly price and is very good. I connect the modem directly to the tv or Apple TV device via Ethernet without WiFi. I can rent a router from Spectrum for $5/month that’s compatible with their high speed internet service or use my own if I need WiFi. Just waiting for my techy kids to give me one, lol.
Spectrum also offers a higher speed internet service up to 940 Mbps (in certain cities but not mine) if there are multiple people in your house streaming simultaneously … although I could do that with my 400 Mbps service.
I rarely have any glitches streaming and when I do it’s almost always because of an outage due to weather so everyone else is glitching too.
So I have all this free technology and Netflix (free), HULU (99 cents/mo), and Amazon Prime ($5/mo), but I still need a cable tv provider account to stream ESPN, ESPN 2, and SEC channels to watch the Razorbacks. No problem, I use a free test account from a small rural cable tv/internet provider. I’m not in their service area so they don’t care (or know) - unless I posted their account info here.
We dropped cable about 2 1/2 years ago and haven’t missed it. I was actually having a discussion with a former grad school professor of mine who researches this and sort of stirred my interest in cord cutting. The streaming services have come such a long way in the past couple of years that they are now as good as any cable or satellite service, but they are still able to keep their costs relatively low.
I have had Hulu for the past couple of years and haven’t had one complaint about it. I’ve tried several of the others - YouTube TV, Sling, Vue, etc. - and just chose the one that fit best for me. I’m fortunate that I live in an area where I can get high-speed Internet. That isn’t available in a lot of rural areas, so those people are still having to rely on satellite companies if they want to watch anything other than local channels. Depending on their surroundings they might not even be able to pick up local affiliates with an antenna and have to rely on the satellite for everything. I’ve lived in rural Arkansas. I’ve seen that.
Sports are the lifeblood of live TV and most of these streaming services have done a great job catering to that audience. Depending on what you like to watch you might need a $5/month ESPN-Plus subscription to supplement what you get through your new provider, but you’re still going to pay right around $50 for all of it.
By the time I ended my account with Cox, I was paying in the neighborhood of $170/month for a cable and internet bundle. Now I pay about $95 and haven’t skipped a beat. In fact, I have higher Internet speed now than I used to have.
Yes, as far as I can tell (I just switched to YouTube TV) you actually get the alternate channels for SEC and for the MLB channels. They do not show up on your guide unless there is programming available.
We did it about 6 months ago. Went with Hulu Live. Absolutely love it! Have not missed cable at all!
Matt, I live in a rural area. I looked at a lot of the services that were mentioned last night. My son originally started his college career to be a computer programmer, so he’s been on this kick to get better internet for years (we get 5mps). So, when I got all these suggestions. I mentioned them to him. These are the three we get where I live: CenturyLink (package deal with DirecTV, even AT&T doesn’t have their streaming service here, though they are building a tower which is supposed to replace the CenturyLink/DirecTV service). HughesNet (I don’t know enough about this, but it says we can get up to 25mps). Finally, Cable America (They’ve been known to be relatively fast at 1mps in this area).
That’s it. My son says it’s not worth it at the slow speeds. Also, an issue we have is anytime it rains, we lose satellite signal, which is absolutely maddening. Any suggestions on what you’d do? Do I just leave it alone until AT&T builds the tower, or do I try out HughesNet? I ask because the $400 a month is ridiculous and with the current Disney/DirecTV argument, I can see my price going up again.
How about recording content? Do you cord-cutters have DVRs? I work Saturdays and often can’t watch games live. The ability to record games (also “Jeopardy!”) is what’s keeping me with DirecTV.
You have unlimited cloud DVR with YouTube TV.
Hulu has a built-in DVR. I think most of the others do, too.
Without knowing all of your details (bundles, discounts, etc.), I would suggest you upgrade your internet to whichever provider has the fastest speed in your area. Then you can test the streaming services (they all have free one-week trials) to see if it works well in your area.
We paid for a much greater speed, but our old internet never climbed above about 40 mps and we were still able to stream well as long as there weren’t too many devices actively online. Now we have about 120 mps and have several devices running at any given time without any problems.
Again, I am a newbe for this, but with YouTube TV you can record unlimited stuff, the only limit is it only gets kept for 9 months. So, I don’t know what I will do if I record our national championship game where we beat Clemson 