Is it Time to Cut the Cord?

[gene]

That is a highly personal decision but we all could look to cut a little spending here and there these days. Your cable and satellite bill might just not meet your media consumption needs, especially with the options that are out there on the market today. If you are not a sports junkie, and don’t need hundreds upon hundreds of often questionable channels in terms of quality programming, that scissors might be headed to the COAX cable in your life. 954,000 people did it in one three-month period. Unless the satellite and cable providers figure out how to reinvent themselves and their pricing, it is very fair to expect millions more to be cutting the cable. While I didn’t do it after my recent call to DirecTV, I sure thought about it for a few days afterwards.

Read: Is it Time to Cut the Cord?

 

[corey]

I dropped cable TV a year ago, which lowered my Spectrum bill about $100 / month. I spent about $450 for a Tablo OTA recorder, 1byone indoor antenna, and Roku Ultras for the living room and bedroom, but that's a one time cost. With NetFlix, Amazon Prime and Gigabytes of DVR storage I've got plenty of options.

 

[Gmoney]

Cut mine last month with COX. Bill was $133.58 a month. Here's the thing about cable/sat, COX has this "Bronze" Package starts at 89.00 by the time you add all the fees, taxs, the 9.99 a month for the box and I added one Package sports that was 10 bucks more. Cox's tells me, you lock in a 2 years deal you get all these Discount. Big scam!! They go this will save you 90 bucks a month yeah right. You cancel before the two years are up you get billed 20 bucks for each month remaining on your two year so called great deal. The cable box you get is used very used Freezes up a lot the COX, On demand is good when it worked right Freezes up you gotta reboot to get the box to start Responding to the remote again. Their internet is really good no issues at all. Their cable service isn't Worth the money not at the prices asked for.

I use Over the air antenna get 19 channels, I Stream Netflix use my Unlimited cell phone data, My Vizio 4K tv has a bunch of free Streaming TV apps Tubi, is really cool, Pluto is OK, VUDU, Peacock, CBS all access, FilmRise and so on. I have a very nice DVD, blu-ray and 4K blu-ray Collection of movies.
Wasn't going to cut my cable and internet but my two year Contract was coming up for renewal and Cox wouldn't give me the same deal best they would do was $190.00 a month told them to Cancel my remaining Contract. I returned their Modem and cable box. When I went to the local Cox office here where I live the lady had the Nerve to tell me wait 60 days and I could get their Bronze package deal again for what I was Originally paying told her COX will never see a dime from me again and walked out.

Streaming this right now, I watch this channel a lot, funny sh$t man!

 

[Joe B]

Severed in July of 2005. 55" display hooked up only to my Oppo BDP-103D.

 

[afterlife2]

No cable since early 2000s. I stream starz and showtime when they got a sale.

 

[Sealman]

Cut mine 4ish years ago! Only thing I miss is the 1 out of 100 or so good (state farms "mayhem" comes to mind) commercials that show up occasionally.
Been using a Roku Ultra but just bought a Shield Pro so looking forward to getting it hooked up.

 

[lennyg1024]

I'm Leaving Direct TV. As Soon As My Contract Is Up. Someone Should Start Class Action Law Suit Against Direct TV. " Direct TV. Promise you All Kinds Of Incentives And Give You Others. " Direct TV Offers You zone Price And Then Bill's You A Different Price. So Bye Direct TV. You Should Take Your Customers More Seriously But You Dont And Won't . You Train Your Customer Service Specialist Not To Help The Customer But To Rebut What The Customer Is Saying. All For A waste Of The Customers Breathe And Time. So It Bye Bye. Direct TV Your Horrible. Lenny G. Leesburg,Florida

 

[Ryvon]

Hi Jerry,

Overall great article. A few things.

The Dodgers are on DirecTV (channel 690). A deal was reached earlier this year, pre-pandemic even.

I would suggest considering less Internet speed. 100 mbps down is enough speed to stream 4K HD on 4 or 5 devices at the same time, so unless you are a hardcore online gamer, more than that is generally a waste.

Also for DirecTV, especially now because they are losing subscribers, if you have been with them for over 2 years, you can ask for a loyalty discount (ask to be transferred to their loyalty department, both "code words") . Currently, if you gripe enough, they are offering $70 off a month for 6 months!! And no, none of that is mistyped.

Lastly there are a number of IPTV options through the internet that you can also stream on your HDTV via Roku and FireTV, etc. While in a very gray area legally, you can get more sports than you've ever dreamed of for around $12 a month and crystal clear HD quality.

That's my 2 (or 10) cents. Thanks for the read overall!!!!

-Ry

 

[lovinthehd]

I cut DirecTV off over a year ago now. Using Amazon Fire Sticks and subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO & Showtime I get more commercial free content and at much less cost, and, now that I have a better ISP, better service, too. No myriad shopping channels and network dreck to wade thru too. I'm not much of a professional sports fan these days (outside of cycling) but can pickup some of that still if I want.

 

[CelesteRJ]

From the description- your bill was not decidedly increased. You had a promotion that expired, so you were charged for the full amount of the service. It sounds like you had a lot of stuff. I have Comcast. I don’t have every channel- even though I would like to- because it’s not within my budget. I see so many people complaining about the companies and how much the services are, but they want all the services they offer at little to no cost.Most be what privilege looks like. Where I come from, if you can’t afford to pay, you go without. Cable is a luxury, not a necessity.

 

[Hobbit]

That is a highly personal decision but we all could look to cut a little spending here and there these days. Your cable and satellite bill might just not meet your media consumption needs, especially with the options that are out there on the market today. If you are not a sports junkie, and don’t need hundreds upon hundreds of often questionable channels in terms of quality programming, that scissors might be headed to the COAX cable in your life. 954,000 people did it in one three-month period. Unless the satellite and cable providers figure out how to reinvent themselves and their pricing, it is very fair to expect millions more to be cutting the cable. While I didn’t do it after my recent call to DirecTV, I sure thought about it for a few days afterwards.

Read: Is it Time to Cut the Cord?

I cut the cord so many years ago I can't remember. When I realized how much I would enjoy putting ~$2k a year towards things I would enjoy a lot more and how little I really like the content that was offered, it was time. Over the years I have had cable and satellite - 6 or a half dozen - they were more the same than different. They cost about the same and both had horrible customer service. It's your classic duopoly.

Now that it's becoming, or is, more common to cut the cord, my only concern is they're going to find other ways to make money. We're already seeing many new players getting into the media service provider game that inevitably reduce content from the providers you currently have.

Questions I have, are we on the path of paying too much for internet service through satellite and cable providers and paying the media providers that went through them directly? How long before the combined cost of both these equals where we started? Or are most people there now?

 

[Hobbit]

I'm not much of a professional sports fan these days (outside of cycling) but can pickup some of that still if I want.

How about Seth Kuss today? He's a real bad a$$. It is getting harder to find good extended coverage...

 

[lovinthehd]

How about Seth Kuss today? He's a real bad a$$. It is getting harder to find good extended coverage...

Fill me in....don't even know the name. Haven't seen anything new in a while....

 

[Hobbit]

Fill me in....don't even know the name. Haven't seen anything new in a while....

He's a 25 year old rider and ex MTBer from Durango, CO and rides for Jumbo Visma, which is a team rivaling INEOS/Sky in depth and quality now.

2020 Critérium du Dauphiné stage 5 highlights - Video

Watch Sepp Kuss take the stage 5 win as Martinez seals overall victory

www.cyclingnews.com

Kuss also won a mountain stage of the Vuelta last year while riding in support of the overall winner, Rogic.

I'll add that he was shredding up the climbers on the earlier stages working for Roglic.

 

[lovinthehd]

He's a 25 year old rider and ex MTBer from Durango, CO and rides for Jumbo Visma, which is a team rivaling INEOS/Sky in depth and quality now.

2020 Critérium du Dauphiné stage 5 highlights - Video

Watch Sepp Kuss take the stage 5 win as Martinez seals overall victory

www.cyclingnews.com

Kuss also won a mountain stage of the Vuelta last year while riding in support of the overall winner, Rogic.

Thanks, wasn't paying attention, didn't think they'd resumed racing.....but I'm more immersed in things mountain bike at the moment

 

[Paul DS]

I'm Leaving Direct TV. As Soon As My Contract Is Up. Someone Should Start Class Action Law Suit Against Direct TV. " Direct TV. Promise you All Kinds Of Incentives And Give You Others. " Direct TV Offers You zone Price And Then Bill's You A Different Price. So Bye Direct TV. You Should Take Your Customers More Seriously But You Dont And Won't . You Train Your Customer Service Specialist Not To Help The Customer But To Rebut What The Customer Is Saying. All For A waste Of The Customers Breathe And Time. So It Bye Bye. Direct TV Your Horrible. Lenny G. Leesburg,Florida

Be sure to document your returned equipment very thoroughly and carefully. Directv likes to charge you for equipment that has been returned.

 

[lovinthehd]

Be sure to document your returned equipment very thoroughly and carefully. Directv likes to charge you for equipment that has been returned.

And don't expect them to take the dish back...they don't want it or even older electronics...

 

[VMPS-TIII]

It was time to cut the cord 4 years ago. Over-the-air TV and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney, Showtime alacart all cheaper than any TV service and more options.

 

[razingkahne_938]

This article needs to be updated. DirecTV has has Spectrum Sportsnet for the LA Dodgers since mid-April of this year.

 

[TankTop5]

I have had Xfinity internet (best outside of fiber but it’s not available in my area) for years without cable. Flat out there are too many streaming services available for cable or satellite to be relevant anymore.

On a side note Xfinity just sent me their streaming box to try free for three months, it’s going back ASAP! UI is terrible, stop a show and it never restarts from where you left off. It doesn’t bring anything to the table that’s not available elsewhere.