Does Cord-Cutting Really Cut Costs? - Comments Page 1
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The use of an indoor HD antenna, Internet access and an Amazon Prime account is more than enough for me. Granted, I don't have (legal) access to current premium content, but I still get a lot for my money. I'd have Internet service even if I didn't have the Amazon Prime account, and there are so many other benefits of Amazon Prime that I'd probably keep it without the video access. So, for the cost of the HD antenna which has already paid for itself, I'm saving a lot every month by not having cable TV. |
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I have opted to use Dish welcome package, a Roku and use Verizon hotspot for Internet. Of course it throttle to a lower speed after 22 GB but I can still download now and watch later. Still only paying $35 a month. |
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The cost of my satellite TV tripled - so now, indoor antenna - internet - Amazon Fire Stick - And Acorn TV. I am doing fine. Saving about $100.00 per month. |
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We thought about it, even bought a 150 mile outdoor antenna. 7 of our friends tried it with multiple ways. After several months all are back to cable or satalight. |
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The internet providers will try to sell you 100MB service or higher, you know, in case you have 100 devices. I have 25MB service for $30/month which is adequate for two HD streams. The household is just my wife and me. Perhaps a larger family would need more bandwidth. |
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Yes, I have been cable/satellite free since 2006. I use Ruko (have one Roku 55" TV and two Roku 4's) All three TV's also have a independent simple computer hooked up to them. I use Hulu+ commercial free, Amazon, CBS all Access, and on the computer VARIOUS web TV and Movie sites. I could NEVER go back to pure live or cable tv because I will not ever be tied to when shows air ever again. I love the freedom of watching what I want when I want without ever thinking of making sure its recorded. I also love the fact I get more tv choices than USA's channel and show line ups, for example some of my favorite shows you can not get on cable/satellite: Murdock Mysteries So, for me, satellite and cable are totally out of the question, can't imagine why anyone would ever use it. |
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Living near a city helps. I have a small outdoor antenna and get of course all the network and the sub-channels. I tried an indoor antenna and that was hit or miss. The small outdoor antenna with a amp (or two) boosts the signal a lot. Internet with a Roku or something like it should complete the package. Of course you just can't turn on the TV and have easy access to cable channels. But being more tech savvy, its a no brainier for me. |
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Hi, my name is Bryan and I am a cord-cutter. Sounds like an AA meeting. 3 months ago I cut the cord with Xfinity. I was paying $232/month. The value in that expense was non-existent. Admittedly, I had all the "unnecessary" channels under sun burning up my money. I had 200 Mbps download and a landline. Something had to give however and it did. Like Donald Trump would say "You're Fired" - My new set-up is with Frontier, internet only, 90Mbps @ $40.00/month. I also have YouTube TV with UNLIMITED DVR for $35 per month to satisfy my live TV and DVR needs. I also have Hulu (No commercials) for my on-demand TV needs for $12 per month. While I have Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku - I like Roku the most because the remote "feels" like a real TV remote and the free content is great. Last but not least, I know have Magic Jack for $4/month - So my $232/month has been reduced to a total of $91/month. That is a $141/month savings. Hello! Goodbye traditional Cable Internet provider. - Warm regards, Bryan Doherty |
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Before moving into a senior residential housing complex 17 months ago, I was paying $86 for the Triple Play from TWC. Currently, I am paying $66 for the in-house triple play in addition to receiving some 31 free OTA channels. |
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Never had cable. Several decades of horror stories have kept me away. |
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We cut the cord from DirecTV three years ago. We pay Comcast about $70 a month for our internet, which we have always had. We have had Netflix forever and Amazon Prime since it was first offered, mostly because we were spending a lot on shipping, but also for cloud storage and Prime video. None of these things are offered without cost by cable or satellite. We added TiVo service for about $15 per month in order to record several channels at once from off the air TV. Everything else we like to watch I find for free using torrents on the internet. So, we're saving $75 - $100 per month by cutting the cord. |
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The root of the cable internet gouging you mention, Bob, is the lack of competition. If there were true competition, we could be enjoying competitive rates like most of the rest of the civilized world. |
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I only have one show that I absolutely have to watch. Enough of you can probably guess what that is. From my cable company I only get high-speed Internet, for which right now, upon reading Bob's article from yesterday I will try to find an alternative. Altogether, I have not found an alternative to a cable subscription. Two of the leading subscription services for "cutting cable" while providing television network access I found unworkable. I have subscriptions to both Amazon Prime and Netflix; but both do not offer live streaming. As for that one program, I have to find a place to stream it once the latest episode airs. Places where at one time I could stream it live became all of a sudden scarce. So, time absorbs my money savings. |
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The biggest advantage of cordcutting is the opportunity to only pay for the myriad of internet content providers for only one month at a time, not locked into 1 and two year agreements as with the cable and satellite providers. You mention live sports, but the latest polls show that the majority of viewwers would choose to dump espn, et al., if they could, from their cable packages. The biggest group of cable keepers are older demographic and "live" tv addicts. |
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We dumped satellite and changed our phone to Internet phone service. We bought a Roku. Our costs went from over $250 for TV, phone and Internet to $45 for Internet, and we subscribe to Hulu but receive it free because we found out that with our grocery store points we get three months free with every so many points. We opted for YouTube Red for $9.99 a month because we hate the interruptions. So many channels now I think we are watching MORE TV now than before! Oh, the phone? Magic Jack... $99 for six years. All in all, ahead of the game, I think. Thanks for posting! :) |
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We cut the cord last summer. We don't watch exactly the same shows we watched before, but we get lots of great (and free) shows via our rooftop TV antenna. We switched internet providers after our old one tried to jack up the internet price. We're saving $110/month after cutting the cord - we wish we'd done it sooner - I can use that extra $1320/year! |
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I never had cable, so no cord to cut. My neighbor has Comcast and pays over $200/month. I pay $45/month for wifi (which I would have anyway). I pay $11.81/month for Netflix, $5/month for Acorn and $120/year for Amazon Prime ($10/month). My streaming charges total $26.81/month. Add my wi-fi and it's $71.81. That's a far cry from my neighbor's $200+ monthly cable bill. I probably save a lot of money by not being much of a sports fan. The sports I enjoy are not the usual (mostly rugby and track). |
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We are the perfect candidates for cutting the cord for several reasons. 1. We have been DirecTV subscribers since 2002, long before AT&T took them over. Our subscription is still a DirecTV one, not U-Verse. We do NOT have any bundled services. We have no "home" phone and our Internet service is stand-alone. So, there's no price increase involved in dropping DirecTV, as it will not impact the cost of my Internet service. 2. As for streaming capabilities, we have four smart TVs plus an AppleTV, which I really like. We also have Amazon Prime. 3. DirecTV costs us $84/month. That $84 is actually the "I called retention and got a $55/month reduction" price! We do NOT have any premium channels. The service is expensive, and we've noticed the quality of the signal has really declined. We have much better quality when we stream. My goal is absolutely to cut that $84 cord. My husband worries about things like "live TV", being able to record, and having the exact "channels" available. But, I don't see these as big issues when streaming services now offer so much content. I can easily imagine that if a few shows were not available, they'd soon be forgotten in the adjustment. However, to make things a little more seamless for him, I would be willing to try DirecTV's NOW streaming service. It is much cheaper than the satellite service. If the picture quality is good, I would be okay with adding that to the mix. The only reason I cannot do it right now is that a little over a year ago, I was incredibly short-sighted and took advantage of DirecTV's equipment upgrade, which required a 2 year commitment. I hadn't had a commitment to ANY service in ages. But, I went against my typical "I don't do commitments" thinking and agreed to it. So, now I have a little over a year before I can dump satellite. My own fault. |
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I thought about only having internet but Comcast |
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What I would like to see is deregulation of the cable lines like was done with land lines (and electricity), so there could be multiple providers in the same geographic area. It worked with Ma Bell and should work with the CATV industry. Incumbent company owns cables and rents bandwidth to competitors who sell services (TV Phone and Internet). What is holding it back, political issues. Something like this needs to hear from the public to their legislators. Monopolies are a thing of the past and our state political bodies need to change the climate. Or, as an alternative, towns could allow a company to install fiber (FTTH) and rent bandwidth... competition is the lifeblood of our economy. |
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