Cable TV is on the way out the door. More and more people are cutting the cord and opting for “on demand” services to watch their favorite shows. I cut the cord about five years ago and don’t see any reason to ever go back to cable TV.
Here is how we cut the cord. We were paying about $145 for cable/internet together ($1740/year) and that was basic cable. We also were paying for a Netflix and Amazon subscription. We decided to cut out the cable/internet bundle and found a cable company that offered unlimited data usage for only $50/month.
$50 per month for unlimited internet. $600/year
$8 per month for Netflix $96/year
$99 per year for Amazon Prime $99/year This is a super deal because I buy a ton of stuff online and with this service I get free two-day shipping. I also use the Kindle Lend Library and Amazon music for streaming music.
All of that is only $795 per year. We usually purchase Showtime for the length of my favorite show, Homeland. We buy ESPN during football season, but cancel it the rest of the year. Despite the various add-ons, we are still paying less than we did when we had cable.
1. Get a streaming device for your TV. This could be the AppleTV (which I have and love, ) or the new Roku 4 ($129) The Chromecast ($35) Fire TV by Amazon ($99).
2. Make sure your internet can handle the increase in data. I pay a flat rate of $50 for unlimited data. However, some companies, like Comcast, have restrictions on data usage and will charge for overages. We have a family of 4, with three gamers, 4 computers, two iPads, and 4 phones along with our AppleTV. We consistently use over 400GB of data per month.
3. Pick and Choose What You Want. No matter what device you buy you’ll use apps to find your content. AppleTV offers many options for you to pick and choose the channels you want to watch. You can pay per month for what you want to watch. Amazon and Netflix offer many of your favorite shows and new shows that are exclusive to each service. You can also watch current favorite shows online. You can buy a subscription service or wait until they are free on the internet.
The key to making this work for you is figuring out which channels you watch most and which ones you can do without. If you want to get your local channels you can buy an antenna. It is fairly simple to install. If you aren’t familiar with streaming TV or haven’t watched much on the internet going without cable could be slow-going at first. However, you will save money and that is always a good thing.
