Who has cut the Cable TV cord...what are you using now?

[adrianp89]

Two years later.......we never got into it.

Currently running subscriptions that have GOT to be sneaking up on a cable bill.

Disney+ Bundle - $19.99
Netflix - $15.99
Amazon Prime (more than just TV, but still) - $16.67
Spotify - $15.99
Apple TV - $5.99

So....$74/mo for all that "stuff" and there's still nothing on. I end up watching "This Old House" on its own channel on SamsungTV's free streaming service most of the time, mostly because it's a known quantity and I can get to it without starting another streaming service; it's baked into the guide on the TV.

Spotify shouldn’t be in that list but if you want premium music and reduce costs, the. Get the Apple+ bundle.

Disney Bundles include Hulu and ESPN. If you switch your phone bill to Verizon it is free (pending level of package).

You are over paying for prime by paying monthly.

Apple TV can combine all your apps into one, it is a pretty neat feature.

With that being said, I have all of the above plus some more and I have more stuff on my list than I have time for.

 

[Seno]

We use Hulu live with Disney plus, we also have a synology media server for the house running plex with movies & assorted other media. There is an IPTV service called worthystream installed on a fire stick which is used primarily traveling (I travel 35 weekends a year), which is only $80 a year and gives a TON on channels.

 

[2kwik4u]

Spotify shouldn’t be in that list but if you want premium music and reduce costs, the. Get the Apple+ bundle.

Disney Bundles include Hulu and ESPN. If you switch your phone bill to Verizon it is free (pending level of package).

You are over paying for prime by paying monthly.

Apple TV can combine all your apps into one, it is a pretty neat feature.

With that being said, I have all of the above plus some more and I have more stuff on my list than I have time for.

Yea, Spotify could be taken off, and Disney+ has more (Wife watches Hulu sometimes, I'm not sure we've ever logged into ESPN+). I took $200/yr and divided that out for Prime. I'm probably off on that cost.

I won't be buying or using any more Apple services. Honestly, even AppleTV was a royal PIA to get setup just so we could watch Ted Lasso. Once that's over we'll likely cancel. I can't describe in words the level of distaste I have for the Apple ecosystem. I've hated them since before the iPhone was a thing and all I was dealing with was the shuffle we won as raffle prize. Every single time I try to interact with that ecosystem it fights me at a level that just reaffirms my poor disposition towards them. The latest was trying to get AppleTV setup and it requiring me to use my corporate email because .edu addresses and gmail aren't allowed on that system. They don't say that anywhere, you just have to keep trying different addresses until it works. If the wife didn't want Ted Lasso I would've said the hell with it on try #3 of entering email addresses on a television with a remote that doesn't have a keyboard.

I'm in the same boat though. I have bigger fish to fry than to herd the cats on this issue......like posting about it on the internet to my online friends

 

[Julian]

We are watching YoutubeTV, Netflix, Paramount, Hulu, Prime, AppleTV+ probably in that order.....and some might be borrowed/shared with our neighbor

Been with YoutubeTV for a few years now and pretty happy with it.

@2kwik4u don't get me going on the damn AppleTV remote!!!! I keep meaning to buy a new bluetooth replacement! In our house nightly we say "this piece of @#$% remote!!!"

 

[Danadavenport]

I honestly didnt know people still had cable or satellite tv. Just like most things I want to watch things on my schedule

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

We have been happy YouTube TV and Netflix users for the past couple of years. We pick up and drop other subscriptions on a regular basis, waiting for them to drop whole season of shows. Latest one was a month of commercial free Paramount +.

Wish we could cut the cord on cable internet. There are some 5G home internet plans available in town, a couple of miles away, but we can't get the service here.

Jim

 

[Shack]

This is a topic in our house as well. We will finally be getting fiber put in at our house as a grant was awarded to expand internet acesss in our county. It will be completed this fall. Can’t wait!! We are using our hotspots on our phones for streaming. Quite pathetic. We even bought a $1000 booster a year ago to help with the signal, which it did do but still sucks. The sad thing is my brother lives across the field from me and he’s had high speed for 5 years. Different company’s services end in the the middle of the field. This has been the most exciting thing that’s happened this year!!!

 

[zipper]

This is a topic in our house as well. We will finally be getting fiber put in at our house as a grant was awarded to expand internet acesss in our county. It will be completed this fall. Can’t wait!! We are using our hotspots on our phones for streaming. Quite pathetic. We even bought a $1000 booster a year ago to help with the signal, which it did do but still sucks. The sad thing is my brother lives across the field from me and he’s had high speed for 5 years. Different company’s services end in the the middle of the field. This has been the most exciting thing that’s happened this year!!!

They, Xfinity, ran fiber up our hill and 4700' up our driveway last Fall under a grant. All free. We went from 3mb/s to 600. Liking it!

 

[2kwik4u]

We are watching YoutubeTV, Netflix, Paramount, Hulu, Prime, AppleTV+ probably in that order.....and some might be borrowed/shared with our neighbor

Been with YoutubeTV for a few years now and pretty happy with it.

@2kwik4u don't get me going on the damn AppleTV remote!!!! I keep meaning to buy a new bluetooth replacement! In our house nightly we say "this piece of @#$% remote!!!"

I don't even have the AppleTV remote. I'm trying to operate the AppleTV app through my Samsung TV.

 

[Thermobrett]

We cut the cord last month and don’t miss it. We use the following

Verizon fiber optic internet
Amazon Prime
Disney+
Discovery+
Hulu
Netflix
YouTube (mainly the kids)

with all of these subscriptions, we are still over $100 a month cheaper, and I haven’t really missed anything that’s on cable.

 

[BigN8]

Yea, Spotify could be taken off, and Disney+ has more (Wife watches Hulu sometimes, I'm not sure we've ever logged into ESPN+). I took $200/yr and divided that out for Prime. I'm probably off on that cost.

I won't be buying or using any more Apple services. Honestly, even AppleTV was a royal PIA to get setup just so we could watch Ted Lasso. Once that's over we'll likely cancel. I can't describe in words the level of distaste I have for the Apple ecosystem. I've hated them since before the iPhone was a thing and all I was dealing with was the shuffle we won as raffle prize. Every single time I try to interact with that ecosystem it fights me at a level that just reaffirms my poor disposition towards them. The latest was trying to get AppleTV setup and it requiring me to use my corporate email because .edu addresses and gmail aren't allowed on that system. They don't say that anywhere, you just have to keep trying different addresses until it works. If the wife didn't want Ted Lasso I would've said the hell with it on try #3 of entering email addresses on a television with a remote that doesn't have a keyboard.

I'm in the same boat though. I have bigger fish to fry than to herd the cats on this issue......like posting about it on the internet to my online friends

I don’t even know what to say to this. It’s so easy. Seamless. And my Apple username has always been a gmail account. LOL. I have 3 Apple TV’s. One outside on patio. One in main living room and one in wife’s office. The fact that my wife can operate this thing is saying something. Just saying. Not that my wife is smarter than you but…….

 

[BrandonG]

The only thing I pay for is Youtube premium (Not Youtube TV). Its like 12$ a month and I can watch stuff that teaches me new skills and doesnt rot my brain like the entire Netflix catalog lol

 

[2kwik4u]

I don’t even know what to say to this. It’s so easy. Seamless. And my Apple username has always been a gmail account. LOL. I have 3 Apple TV’s. One outside on patio. One in main living room and one in wife’s office. The fact that my wife can operate this thing is saying something. Just saying. Not that my wife is smarter than you but…….

Lots and Lots and Lots of people love that ecosystem, and it just works for them. I get it, I really do. Even have friends that work in Cupertino that sing the Apple Ecosystem praises.

Every single interaction I have with that company is a colossal PIA. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just not good with fruit based products (Although I did love my Blackberry?!?!). Next door neighbors have a MacBook I've tried to use a few times, Nope, giant PIA to use that as well. Even the Apple TV app seems to like to crash my Samsung TV. Every time someone send me a text from an iPhone with a picture or video in it, it's the lowest quality on the planet. Friends took vacation pics exclusively on an iPhone. Had to plug in and pull the pics from the phone to get any decent quality. Everything they sent via text/email/cloud/etc was garbage for printing, and just OK for viewing. Of course it took 30min to get the iPhone to talk to my windows machine to get the pictures, and they had no idea how to do it with the MacBook.

Seriously, EVERY SINGLE INTERACTION I have with anything Apple is a pain in my butt. So, they won't be getting my money.

I'm going with "I'm too smart" not "I'm not smart enough"........It's all about vantage point though right

 

[Bluewater272]

We're a few years into our cord cutting journey.
- Ended up back at Hulu after trying all of the other services available. Its just better - and now that you get ESPN/Disney at the same (high) price, it makes a little more sense.
- We switched our mobile to T Mobile, and that's covering our Netflix bill.
- We got Paramount+ just for 1883, but its cheap and there's generally something decent to watch on there so we keep it for now.
- Have Prime for other reasons, but that service is beyond terrible. Not sure why anyone would pay for Prime Video if they didn't do an obscene amount of Amazon shopping too.
- HBO is the only one we still have that may get the axe soon-ish. They have good shows, but not enough of them, and the movies are pretty meh. Might sign up for one quarter each year just to catch up on what we missed.


I'm probably not paying much less than I was with Cable...

 

[djetok]

We're a few years into our cord cutting journey.
- Ended up back at Hulu after trying all of the other services available. Its just better - and now that you get ESPN/Disney at the same (high) price, it makes a little more sense.
- We switched our mobile to T Mobile, and that's covering our Netflix bill.
- We got Paramount+ just for 1883, but its cheap and there's generally something decent to watch on there so we keep it for now.
- Have Prime for other reasons, but that service is beyond terrible. Not sure why anyone would pay for Prime Video if they didn't do an obscene amount of Amazon shopping too.
- HBO is the only one we still have that may get the axe soon-ish. They have good shows, but not enough of them, and the movies are pretty meh. Might sign up for one quarter each year just to catch up on what we missed.


I'm probably not paying much less than I was with Cable...

We ended about the same and there is still nothing to watch lol. We are Youtube TV though with prime(shipping), Tablo (OTA) with the guide sub, disney +

 

[Skyhawk223]

We used Dish Network for years but cancelled about 5 years ago and never looked back. We now have Disney+/Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime. Had HBO Max but cancelled as nothing interesting to watch. Thinking about getting rid of Netflix as we barely watch.

 

[RightStuff]

Might be some interest here so posting it just in case. Best Buy is offering 3 mo. of free Apple TV, usually their free trial is only 7 days.
Apple TV - 3 mo. free

 

[HawaiiBreeze]

I cut the Cable 30 years ago, changed my life and my wallet.

 

[84rzv500r]

cut the cable cord a while ago... have gig fiber to the house... 1/10GbE in my office/lab, 3 channels of wifi through the house... hulu
disney+ Netflix, amazon prime and youtube... still less than half the price of cable... the company I work for builds among other things Shield TV boxes so all my boxes have the same channels and one controller controls all... I get 4K AI upscaling to all my 4K tv's dont watch much TV but I enjoy good movie now and then on the big screen..

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Had cable literally decades ago and ditched them, then had Direct TV when you had to buy the receiver, mainly did that to get Speedvision..then that went away. Had DTV up until several years ago, now just have cable with pretty low speed just for internet and have a network extender for cell phone reception.

I don’t have a TV in my living room as I think it sacrilegious to put a TV any where near my bay window that looks out through the trees into a large field, love watching the deer and other wildlife as well as the greenery. I have a TV in my room for watching YouTube vids and prime movies.

I haven’t had “network” tv of any kind for years now, don’t watch the news, have an online newspaper that I occasionally read the headlines and I’m done, and no social media unless you call this site social media. Here’s the thing about the news, 99.1% of the content has no direct bearing on your life most of the content is upsetting and you have no control over it, the remaining .9% which includes the weather, may or may not have bearing on your life and you still have no control over it. So why be a part of something that upsets you and you have no control over it. As Mark Twain put it so eloquently “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed”

You’ve heard of all those “challenges“ ice bucket etc… here’s my challenge. No social media, TV, especially the news, movies, of any kind for a month. Read books-preferably some classics, go hang out with your friends-no cell phones when hanging out-turn them off, instead of texting and such when you’re with your friends try having a deep conversation, play board games, trivial pursuit, cards against humanity is fun, go spend all day on your boat driving around, fishing, towing tubes, having lunch, watching sunrises and sunsets, write an actual letter to your loved ones and mail it to them. It is truly amazing at the perspective you will gain without the ADD type of programming which will leave your mind free to look at your life, where it’s been, where it is, and where it is going, and to truly appreciate everything around you. Your mind is your most precious belonging, be careful what you feed it. Free your mind. You may find that after a month away from all that programming, that returning to it is distasteful at best.