Anyone cut the cable cord??

[Mr. Carfino]

Getting a PS4 next month and one thing that is intriguing is the thought of dropping DirecTV and saving $150 a month. I very rarely watch live shows anyway and seems like most sporting events can be streamed now. It seems like it wouldn't be that much of a change but a lot of extra money in my pocket.

Am I missing something?

 

[HawkFantastic]

I haven't because the live sporting events I want to see on cable/sat usually end up showing 'blacked out' when I try and pull them up. For example, I wanted to see UNI's MVC tournament games on WatchESPN and I got that message. FWIW- I live in SW Iowa.

$150.00/month...... Holy WOW! You must have just about every premium channel

 

[jscott78]

Dropped it six months back. We watch netflix for the most part. Can get NFL and golf in HD off local channels with an antenna.

Read more, see some movies at the local art house theater (benefit of this theater is you avoid the fat sick people coughing up hairballs while eating heavily buttered and salted popcorn two fisted out of two monster containers).

 

[fredjr82]

I've been wanting to for a while now. Can't pull the trigger though. We have Rokus, Netflix, "downloaded movies" we stream to the Roku, etc but I just can't call and tell them to cancel. We do have kids so Nick Jr and Disney Jr are on the TV sometimes throughout the day. Maybe when my kids get a little older and have a ton of activities and sitting around watching TV isn't as common place we'll cut the cord but for now the $93 we pay for DirecTV isn't breaking the bank.

 

[Derekd3408]

You couldn't pay me $200 a month to drop direct tv.

 

[bagdropper]

Originally posted by Derekd3408:
You couldn't pay me $200 a month to drop direct tv.

My thinking as well. I've lived the last 20 years with it. Can't imagine life without it. No NFLST, no Cardinals games (I live in the MLB online blackout area for live video), no Hawk games...just shoot me now.

DTV is worth to me every penny of the $111 my monthly bill is. And them some.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Now that my teams are out of the NCAA tournament, I decided to look at this some more. I called Verizon and Comcast to find out what it would cost just to get fast internet. No phone service, no TV.

The pricing is absurd.

Verizon wants $65 plus $10 for their router, plus tax. That's for their 50Mb/s service (up and down).

Verizon also offers a 25Mb/sec service for $55 plus router and tax. That's fast enough for me. So, around $70.

Comcast wants $67 for their 25Mb/sec plan. I already own modem and router that works for Comcast, so no add-ons for me. Again, around $70.

Comcast offers a slow alternative for $40. You only get 3Mb/sec for that. Which means you can watch Netflix, but probably not in HD. Netflix says you should have 5Mb/sec (minimum) for HD. I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that they make their cheap plan too slow for HD Netfix.

Interestingly enough, you can get those plans with "local" TV for $5 LESS per month and Verizon even throws in HBO. But that's not HD. If you want HD, you have to rent a box for another $12. Still, that gives you HBO and no need to futz with antennas.

Right now I'm paying $110 for internet and a TV package with all the channels I like to watch, including HBO. Downgrading to internet-only would save me around $40. That's not trivial, but it isn't what I was expecting.

The $40 slow service is in the right price range, but if you can't watch Netflix in HD, how usable is it?