Have You "Cut the Cable" Yet?

Wednesday, July 9, 2014 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing

I have Bright House as our cable provider, and recently we had to put digital adapters on all our TVs (5) in order to continue to watch cable after their digital conversion.  The best part is we also have to pay $2 each for these boxes.

After getting my latest with all these charges it's nearly topping $200 with internet, TV, phone, etc.  I'm just about done.  Obviously internet is a necessity, but after taking a tally of what people actually watch in this house, I'm not seeing much reason to have cable TV at all.

Nearly all the shows people here watch are either available for free online, or through a much cheaper service like Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon.  Add a HD antenna to that and I'm not really sure what we'd be missing out.

I'm curious to know if anyone else has "cut the cable" and any pros and cons you have found.

 

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LightStar
Reply #1 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 12:11 PM

Haven't cut here on Comcast Spencer. My monthly payment is about the same as yours too. Something to think about I guess, but if I cut a service here my bill would go up as I have their Triple Play package that gives a discount, and Comcast is the only service provider I have here. I can't use satellite because of the terrain around me and AT&T is waaaaaaaaaaay too slow.

WebGizmos
Reply #2 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 12:18 PM

My plan is to cut the satellite tv and get a 400 disc dvd player. Right now I have Directv and it's really gone downhill. The onscreen tv guide is more or less no longer in sync with what's actually on tv. What's playing on a daily basis seems to be on a loop of recent shows and the previous 50 years of shows never happened...it's almost like someone stuck in a tape...hit replay....and walked away. The often 3 day free previews are really sad with nothing actually new playing or what is playing was on the previous day on regular channels....but they want you to pay twice to watch what you already pay once to see.

So the plan is to buy a 400 disc player....load all my dvd's and hit random. I don't have the latest digital tv's or I would just go the route of patching in hulu or some other online tv viewing service. I checked about the antenna option but it seems I would only get about 13 channels in my area.....otherwise I'd install an antenna as well.

Here's some series that might help someone decide...

http://www.antennaweb.org/

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/

...and I'm sure there are other services out there.

Hankers
Reply #3 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 12:20 PM

You have it much easier in the USA to cut the cable as many programs are restricted here in Canada unless you use a VPN.

Have cut my cable here saving $100+ monthly and don't miss it one bit.

IROKONESS
Reply #4 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 12:43 PM

I no longer have cable, instead I have purchased the converter and antenna which get's me all my local news and tv shows. Approximately $200. for both but cable is gone forever as far as I'm concerned. Plus I have tethered hotspot my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 so internet on all and any electronics I have costs $90.00 a month. That's my only bill. Free phone calls across Canada.  Free text.  Anytime.  And really really great, unlimited data.    MTS rocks for me. 

Avatar137
Reply #5 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 1:28 PM

Yes, I cut our cable a little over two years ago and have never looked back. It's great not having many commercials (Hulu+ sucks for this... but Netflix and Amazon don't have them) and I have never been addicted to TV where I have to watch a show as soon as it's available. I've got a life that's much more important than sitting in front of a TV watching mostly stupid shows. It has saved me over $2500 these past 2+ years now. One of the best decisions I've ever made! Do it, you'll wonder why you didn't do it a long time ago!

Seleuceia
Reply #6 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 1:39 PM

We pay only for internet ($40 a month), no phone or TV...we can pretty much watch whatever we want on the internet with Netflix or other sources...if you add in the cost of those services, it is still less than paying for TV by a significant margin...

RedneckDude
Reply #7 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 2:40 PM

Cut ties with Comcast a few months ago. Ridiculously expensive and idiots for tech support.

Have DirecTv and Century Link for TV and phone/internet.

 

Still paying 175.00 a month, cable was 220.00.

 

I do miss my net speeds.

DaveRI
Reply #8 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 2:44 PM

Still have satellite because someone else in the house really wants it.  Since it's there I have the tv "on" a lot but seldom really watch it.  We got off cable a few years ago because of their constant tiny rate increases - it was starting to resemble a leaky faucet more than a service.

Daiwa
Reply #9 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 2:56 PM

Would love to cut the cable (again) but current residence is too far from the towers to pull in the OTA HD stations.  Apple TV is plenty otherwise.  Also too far from switch for decent DSL.  If I didn't need a dedicated fax line I'd get rid of the phone service.  It's crazy to me that a barebones absolute minimum service phone-TV-internet bundle is $200 a month.

kona0197
Reply #10 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 3:16 PM

I don't think our household could rid of cable. We watch shows that aren't available in their latest season on Netflix and other streaming services. We also use the Comcast on demand services quite often. Besides we get a huge discount for having cable bundled with our internet.

gmc2
Reply #11 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 4:19 PM

cut the cable long ago. We rely on Netflix.

GFireflyE
Reply #12 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 4:31 PM


I live in Canada and pay $78CAD/Mo for Internet and land line phone. No Cable. No Sat. No Netflix. No Cellphones. etc. No problems.

What I cannot watch online, I buy.

Though, I still believe I am paying too much for my bill. Should be closer to $60/mo, but I guess the private utilities need to make there profit margins...

 

davrovana
Reply #13 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 4:44 PM

Haven't had cable for years. There are dividends you receive by keeping the media to a minimum in your life. The attitudes and biases implicit in American media are many, and insidiously influence your ability to criticaly analyze your world. The mind and spirit benefit from limited exposure, in my opinion.

Those with families should be mindful of how media affects kids, especially "for kids" programming like Disney and Disney X.D. Careful analysis of their programming makes the skin crawl.

Think of how much money you'd have if you took that cable bill money, and instead invested it into mutual funds, dollar cost averaging every month for the next few years. Smarter and richer, you'd be.

amitsaran
Reply #14 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 4:55 PM

Here in India, there's no Cable TV since the past 2 years ... only digital setup boxes or direct TV from dish antenna both of which cost about 200 INR per month, i,e  $3.35 USD !! And for the internet i have a broadband internet service for which i pay 700 INR i,e  $ 11.7 USD though the speed of the internet is just limited upto 2mbps.

Seleuceia
Reply #15 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 4:57 PM

What cable providers do you guys have??  I'm seeing a lot of quotes of $200, but here you can get TV+phone+internet for $90 a month...

Hawawaa
Reply #16 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 5:02 PM

I haven't had cable in long time. My only need is internet 60$ month (sadly I have to pick comcast due to no bandwidth cap otherwise I would have huge internet bills) and ATT for my phone 40$ month.

 

I buy Game Of Thrones DVDs and watch it at my friends houses when new seasons start. 

kona0197
Reply #17 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 6:06 PM

Seleuceia
What cable providers do you guys have?? I'm seeing a lot of quotes of $200, but here you can get TV+phone+internet for $90 a month...

I have Comcast. 200+ channels of TV, On-Demand service, HBO and Encore movie channels, and 25 Mbps all for around $120 per month.

Daiwa
Reply #18 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 6:38 PM

Mine's Cox.  No premium channels, just the lowest tier of TV service.  Internet is the middle of 3 plans with varying D/L speeds; you pay to open the throttle, lower speed service only $10 less.  Phone is basic service, two lines (one for fax); second line adds only $10.  They have a license to print money.  There is competition (technically) but you never get apples-to-apples because it's a competition between cable, DLS & satellite.  All of them bring you back to about the same monthly nut no matter how you cut it.

LightStar
Reply #19 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 6:56 PM

Seleuceia

What cable providers do you guys have??  I'm seeing a lot of quotes of $200, but here you can get TV+phone+internet for $90 a month...

 

OK, who is your service provider? Cable or satellite? What Internet speed? What state? 

T4House
Reply #20 Wednesday, July 9, 2014 7:07 PM

Yo Dawg! We heard you like to watch TV.

JJ

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