Cable/Satellite TV how to bring down the cost?

[HOUSTON RICK]

I know more than a few here have cut the cord and done without. I did not own a TV until I was married and cutting the cord is now not an option. Satellite was a bargain alternative for a while, but it has slowly crept up to the same price as basic cable. So how do we have a range of options and not pay a fortune every month? Thank you for your ideas in advance.

 

[glenwolde]

If your internet is good, YouTube TV. Also you may be able to get something free if you switch phone service. Cricket Wireless gives us HBO Max included.

 

[Bald1]

I call direct tv once a yr for my home and cabin. I threaten to cancel and they reduce it. Once they cut it almost 50%. You will get bounced to about three people before u talk to the one who can cut the rates.

 

[Muss Muggins]

This is long. Stop here if you're not really interested in streaming TV.

I used to pay about $350 for Charter/Spectrum, which included my internet, wifi, cable, and landline phone. I rented the modem and router from the provider, and we had four DVR boxes and two plain ole cable boxes. Got all the channels I wanted, but it went up and up, and they refused to accept my offer to pay what the new people were paying (and I offered in the kindest way I know how.)

We also pay for several of the various streaming services for things we like to watch, from $5 to $15 a month. Netflix, Paramount Plus, Peacock, Amazon Plus (comes with Prime,) ESPN+, AppleTV, and I'm told my son pays for HULU. We'd pay for those regardless of what service we use. Some would say we over subscribe, but if I want to watch something, I want to watch it, and I have the money.

Over the last month, I canceled most of the above services and transitioned to DirectTV Stream. Kept the internet and wifi because it's smoking fast, and there's no real good alternative 'round here. Haven't needed the landline phone for years, because e'erbody has cell phones and the only time it rings is during election years.

Now we're paying $130 for DirectTV Stream connections to eight televisions (can hook up to 20 devices, if the Wifi can stand it, but I don't intend to test it), and I've got three more that I can use away from the home network. I use one at my office, one on my iPad, and one on my iPhone.

We pay $80 for the WiFi, so I've cut my bill by almost half, eliminated the problems that come with hardwired boxes, and the service is spectacular.

Now comes the part that gets a little confusing. We have a mix of smart tv's, and three that aren't smart, but are at least flat screen plasma or LED. DirectTV sent me one box, which hooks to Wifi, that I used to hook up my man cave TV on the back porch.

Some of the smart tv's were able to directly download the DirectTV Stream app. All good there. The ones that couldn't required either a ROKU or Amazon Fire stick. These plug in to one of your HDMI ports, require a separate power source/cord, and give you internet access, the ability to download whatever, including the DirectTV stream app, and also offer various free streaming options. No additional charges for either, and if you just had Wifi and a Roku or Amazon stick without other services, there's lots of stuff to watch.

The Amazon sticks, if you're a Prime member, can be had for about $16 each. The Roku stick is about $30. I like the way the Amazon stick installs, and it comes with a short extender that helps if your HDMI ports are somewhat enclosed.

That's all I got. I pay for way more service than I know most of you are interested in, but I like sports and streaming series, and the wife likes all kinds of stuff. It's all about the price you're willing to pay for the service you're able to access, and what you are willing to not watch at a price . . .

 

[bigwheelzip]

.... cutting the cord is now not an option.

Be specific about your "must have" channels for any accurate help.




Sent from my motorola one 5G using Tapatalk

 

[notsofast]

Rabbit ears and a party line would save me $500 a month. That'll be six grand a year

 

[cballman]

I use Windstream internet with a landline that we have had since we been married over 36 years now. We went with Firestick and purchased Sling TV. Got all the channels I watched except one but with a savings of almost $200 a month we did good. One of the firesticks went bad and we purchased a Roku stick. Close to he same as firestick got o much free **** I dont have time to watch. Also got rid of the newspaper save a bunch more money that way also. I had a little bit of trouble at first but doing better now with the new technology.

 

[llowry61]

What Muss said. These companies are experts at knowing what that one have to have channel is and extracting the maximum value from your wallet to provide it to you.

We are working through the downsizing from Dish landline etc, but had to get faster I net service as the first step.

We will be 100% streaming soon.

 

[Robspeire]

12 years ago I had a dispute with Mediacom with my bill (they double charged me). I told them take it out & have not watched TV since unless I am visiting someone & they have it on. I get everything I need from the internet & I have learned alot from it. When something interests me from the news or forums I do searches follow links to other sites.
Best choice I ever made.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Youtube TV - $64.95/month with lots of channels. Pretty equivalent to most cable TV at a fraction of the cost.

 

[chief38]

Get, or better yet share Netflix and Amazon. Between them, and Youtube there are a plethora of choices to watch. A basic cable channel package will get you internet, news, weather and financial. I find that anything additional is repetitive and unnecessary.

We have Xfinity through our HOA so we don't get an actual bill for it. We also recently bought a new TV and it came equipped with Roku. Roku has so many channels and things to watch and it's free.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

My wife being management with AT&T , we used to get Direct TV for free , just paid taxes . Well , they sold it and we started looking . We hadn't paid for cable for 10-15 years , so you want to talk sticker shock ?

Our big tv is a Samsung along with 2 others . We didn't know but they have their own , FREE , streaming service with at least 200 channels . We bought Paramount Plus , paid for a year and got it for like $100 . We also have Amazon because we are Prime members . If I can't find something to watch between those 3 , I read .

 

[Jon651]

Depending on how close to a metro area you live and what your "must have" channels are, you will be surprised by just how many channels a digital TV antenna will get these days. I live in Central Florida and the one in my travel trailer gets about 40; if you exclude the Spanish-only language channels, the religious TV channels and the shopping channels that will bring it down to around 25 - which is more than enough for our camper. We get about the same amount/ratios when we camp in the St. Augustine/Jacksonville area, the Tampa/St. Pete area, Savanah and Charleston so my presumption is that number is about average.

If you have good internet then you can use it to power a Roku or Amazon Fire TV stick and get a nice selection of other channels and free movies that way as well and all it will cost you is the initial outlay for the hardware ($25-75). Of course if you want current movies and premier channels then that will start to cost you - and those costs can add up fast!

So essentially the only costs would be for a digital antenna and a streaming stick of some flavor (if you already have good internet, of course) and unless you want or need a premier channel then you won't have a monthly bill at all.

 

[mtgianni]

We live under a hill and get one PBS local channel on antenna. Hulu + local channels on a roku is $69. We pay extra for Netflix and get Amazon Prime. IMO Prime is worth paying for just for TV. Shipping is a bonus.

 

[Farmer17]

My internet with Cox Cable costs $50 a month and I pay about $14/month for Prime Video mainly because I like the free two day shipping and great return policy with anything I buy from Amazon. I get lots channels with Prime and several free movies with the ability to rent movies pretty inexpensively. My living room Samsung TV has about 50 Samsung free channels built in and my bedroom LG TV has about the same number of LG channels. From September through December I use Sling TV ($35/month) for ESPN 1,2,and 3 for watching college football and free movies then I cancel it when football season is over. It's quick and easy to cancel or start service with no startup fee.

 

[Baxter6551]

Muss and others who posted ….. I'm a dope when it comes to this stuff …..question if you do all this do you still get network channels …. And things like the food network / Discovery channel etc ?

 

[CH4]

I am boycotting Comcast and cable tv. I cut the cord in 2014 and haven't looked back. I use my unlimited T-Mobile phone in the US and all the countries I live/work for about $50 a month. When I am at my place outside of Vegas, I use one of those antennas that sits in your window. Get all the channels I need, including sports. My alarm system even works off my phone service and can be fully monitored, armed and disarmed from anywhere on the planet. If I need a larger screen, I use my hotspot to connect my laptop or IPad.
For movies, I carry a thumb drive that has 100s of my favorite movies. Just plug it into my laptop or smart tv and I have plenty of entertainment.

 

[Jon651]

Muss and others who posted ….. I'm a dope when it comes to this stuff …..question if you do all this do you still get network channels …. And things like the food network / Discovery channel etc ?

The basic local network affiliates (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc.) are all free "over the air" (via digital antenna) from the local stations.

If you already have good internet service and use either a Roku or Amazon Prime device then a lot of the networks like the Food Channel, Discovery, etc. have some combination of current "live" broadcasts and past episodes of many shows you can watch for free. On many, you can pay a fee and get even more content, episodes, shows, etc. - but you have to keep a close eye on that because those fees add up quickly and can easily surpass the price of basic cable.

If you already pay for Amazon Prime, just do a quick Google search for "Channels on Amazon Prime" and you will get several places to look at what Prime has to offer. If you already pay for both Internet and Prime, then a Fire TV device can bring you a lot of content you may not know you already pay for. There are always some great prices on Fire TV sticks during the major sales. Lots of newer Smart TVs also have Prime as one of their built-in channels so all you have to do is activate it with your Amazon membership info (email and password).

 

[duman444]

Baseball fan?

Since you are in the Houston area, the only streaming service that carry's the Astros on AT&T southwest is FUBO. Weird thing about FUBO is, they don't carry any of the Turner channels and the Astros first and second series were only on that or the Spanish version of MLB, which FUBO does carry. Luckily enough, I have YouTube TV through a free one year, so did not have to watch it without sound on MLB mehico.

Next year, will have to figure something else out.

 

[Muss Muggins]

With DirectTV Stream, you do. It's also possible, as others have noted, that your Smart TV alone, or your Amazon Fire Stick or Roku Stick will give you most of those channels. Just one of those things you have to investigate. Those who suggest a digital antenna for broadcast probably live in an urban metro area. Down here in the sand flats, it's doable, but depending on where you are and where you hang the antenna, you might miss a few, especially if you're rural. If you're in metro Houston, should be fine, but you still have to buy an antenna, position it, run coax, etc. With DTVS, it's there . . .

The absolute must have is a solid internet/wifi signal . . .

Muss and others who posted ….. I'm a dope when it comes to this stuff …..question if you do all this do you still get network channels …. And things like the food network / Discovery channel etc ?