# Cord Cutters



## Eric

It's been just over a year for me and I couldn't be happier, Comcast with their constant rate hikes, additional taxes and contracts can stick it, ala carte TV is the way to go. I've been using YoutubeTV as my primary provider and then I'll add or cancel some of the other cheaper services as needed. What's key to me is having my own choices more than anything else.


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## JBaby

I’m cord never, but I’m in a cord cutting household. We cut the in 2017. But I cut it years before that. I had Dish in my room but I never watched it. I preferred Hulu and my tv. I hate appointment tv. Tv comes on when I say it does. I only used our login for apps and by apps I just mean MSNBC. But now I just use my sister’s login. My sister is forced to have cable by her apartment complex so I don’t feel bad about using her login. All but 3 of our subscriptions aren’t tv Channels. I split Hulu with Mom because on the regular ad-free tier you can only have two simultaneous streams. Everything else is split 3 ways with Mom and Sister. Monthly my sister pays 25.45. Mom pays $32. I pay $48.99 because I have YouTube Premium. I watch a ton of YouTube so it’s worth it to me. We also have a year subscription to Disney+ and we have Prime that we split 3 ways but we have it more for shipping than for video. I can’t wait for the tvOS app Prime Video to be able to handle profiles. Right now only Mom and I can watch. I was also gifted a year of CuriosityStream with Nebula for my birthday this month. 

We all think we’re getting over like fat rats. Our Dish bill was $190. For us it wasn’t just about saving money. It was about getting exactly what we wanted and it was about not having channels we never watched.

ETA: I’ve been cutting the cord since 2007. I joined Hulu the day it came out of beta. I still had a PC back then.


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## DT

Feb 2015 for us, so ~5-1/2 years    We had been DirecTV for years.


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## Yoused

I bought an antenna about seven or eight years ago, along with a signal box for the old TV. We get some OTA locals, which provide a pretty good picture. Had C-Band (big dish with tracking motor) and, later, "4DTV" digital on it, but the content was getting progressively crappier over time. Then they just stopped offering reasonable C-Band, so we dropped it.

It feels to me like TV is just dying. In a few decades, it will be gone, as we know it, completely.


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## lizkat

I didn't just cut the cord, I had them uncable the house.   At first they said they didn't do stuff like that.  Then I asked for the phone number of their legal counsel so I could have my attorney call that office.   Then they said they thought they could have a truck out to my place next day first thing,  and actually sent out two trucks in about an hour and a half, one to do the work and the other with some guy who wanted to apologize if there had been any misunderstanding about their desire to accommodate my request.  Wow!

Anyway that was sometime around 2004 or so.  No regrets but meanwhile happy my copper line DSL got fast enough to support streaming so I can pick and choose stuff to watch when I want to and subscribe to some options as well.   I don't miss televised "news" which imo doesn't compare well to newspapers.


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## Edd

lizkat said:


> I didn't just cut the cord, I had them uncable the house.   At first they said they didn't do stuff like that.  Then I asked for the phone number of their legal counsel so I could have my attorney call that office.   Then they said they thought they could have a truck out to my place next day first thing,  and actually sent out two trucks in about an hour and a half, one to do the work and the other with some guy who wanted to apologize if there had been any misunderstanding about their desire to accommodate my request.  Wow!
> 
> Anyway that was sometime around 2004 or so.  No regrets but meanwhile happy my copper line DSL got fast enough to support streaming so I can pick and choose stuff to watch when I want to and subscribe to some options as well.   I don't miss televised "news" which imo doesn't compare well to newspapers.



What’s the thinking behind removing the cable physically? Never heard of that.

We cut whenever Hulu Live came out (3 years ago?). We had Comcast and I’d developed an irrational hatred for them because prices always increased. Hulu Live has done a couple of price bumps though, and now that costs $60/month.  

Throw in $100/month for Comcast internet. Now add Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney+, Showtime/CBS All Access, and certainly we’re paying more than when we had cable. The last two of those we picked up during COVID because we don’t travel or go out much. Hopefully, we start stripping down if things get back to normal.


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## Alli

I doubt we’re saving any money at this point, but it’s nice not to lose tv every time it rains. My greatest fear is that the ISPs suddenly decide they are the new version of the cable company and double their rates to cover our media consumption.


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## Eric

Edd70 said:


> What’s the thinking behind removing the cable physically? Never heard of that.



I have never asked to have it removed myself but they do come and run it all along your house when they install, I would think that if you cancel and want it removed that they should pull it also.



> We cut whenever Hulu Live came out (3 years ago?). We had Comcast and I’d developed an irrational hatred for them because prices always increased. Hulu Live has done a couple of price bumps though, and now that costs $60/month.
> 
> Throw in $100/month for Comcast internet. Now add Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney+, Showtime/CBS All Access, and certainly we’re paying more than when we had cable. The last two of those we picked up during COVID because we don’t travel or go out much. Hopefully, we start stripping down if things get back to normal.



Yeah, it can really add up if you're not careful. Even with everything we have now we've estimated we're still saving around $50 a month and we can add/remove services as we see fit and almost all of them offer a free trial. This is one area where I'm glad to see the free market stepping in.

What really burned me about Comcast is all the hidden fees and taxes, that adds up and you may not notice if you're not really looking at the bill. Then they "increased" my internet speed without telling me and tacked on another monthly fee for that, that was the last straw.


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## lizkat

Edd70 said:


> What’s the thinking behind removing the cable physically? Never heard of that.




Oh it was a completely ideosyncratic if carefully considered decision,  in aid of spending far less time being passively entertained at a time when my real life offered ever more intriguing options,  just as I was also becoming aware that a human lifespan is not infinite.   I hasten to say I'm in that age group that learned to read before there were TVs and I am pretty sure that has influenced my attitude towards video.  I've never understood how a lot of people leave their TV sets on while not watching, as though they are part of the room's furnishings, and expect themselves and guests to conduct conversations around whatever's on that little (or huge) screen.

Anyway I was happy to leave cable television of that particular era behind:   the middle of the first decade of the new century brought infotainment as permanent supplanter of TV news, the rise of artificially discordant cable "talking heads" programs,  more gratuitously violent dramas,  voyeuristic, hypernarcissistic "reality TV" and a raft of mediocre cable channels from which "to choose" a package.... albeit without ability to construct la carte bundles of viewing options. 

My then ongoing old house renovations beckoned, and I had moved upstate permanently,  so my gardens became a main attraction in daylight hours during the season. My quilting-related interests more than filled the evening hours then and shared winters with a booklist as long as interstate 80.  So what was I paying a cable company for?  The right to catch the latest scripted soundbites of ever more contentious politicians?  I could read about the issues related to those remarks in the newspapers. 

My decision to detach from the whole cable thing came after I had lent my TV set to an elderly neighbor while his kin were shopping for a new one for him.  Realized my life didn't miss a beat the whole time, and so when the set was returned to me I didn't hook it back up right away....  a dangerous moment there for the cable company, as it turned out.   Meanwhile iTunes had begun to offer digital downloads...

No regrets, even if it's fun to stream entertainment sometimes over DSL that finally got fast enough here to bother with it.  Still feel like life's too short to sit in front of a screen for how long it takes video to get the point across while demanding you invest your eyesight.   Don't mind audiobooks or podcasts because I can sew or cook or do chores at the same time.


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## Yoused

The thing that pissed me off was the ad encroachment. We did have a premium or two, but they added up to six or eight channels that offered about 20 or 30 movies a month, cycling over and over, and a few Bills Maher and such. But one can only watch so many movies. The rest of the content was getting thinner and thinner, and channels like Bravo and History that used to have interesting content went to shit. "Queer Eye" ? Come on. At some point I thought, why should I pay them to bombard me with commercials? (Granted, it made TV a less sound-intensive experience, thanks to heavy use of the mute button.)


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## JBaby

Alli said:


> I doubt we’re saving any money at this point, but it’s nice not to lose tv every time it rains. My greatest fear is that the ISPs suddenly decide they are the new version of the cable company and double their rates to cover our media consumption.




I totally agree with you. It’s especially bad for people with the live streaming service and sports fans. But if you don’t care about either you can still save quite a bit. Best part about steaming is not having to have the weather maps in the corner. 



ericgtr12 said:


> Yeah, it can really add up if you're not careful. Even with everything we have now we've estimated we're still saving around $50 a month and we can add/remove services as we see fit and almost all of them offer a free trial. This is one area where I'm glad to see the free market stepping in.
> 
> What really burned me about Comcast is all the hidden fees and taxes, that adds up and you may not notice if you're not really looking at the bill. Then they "increased" my internet speed without telling me and tacked on another monthly fee for that, that was the last straw.




I love being able to pick and choose services instantly. I subscribe to STARZ and EPIX once a year.


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## Renzatic

I cut the cord about 4 years ago now, ditching Charter for DirecTV Now, moving to Youtube TV once they started getting flaky, then finally bailing on them, and sticking to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, backed up by the 30+ channels I get for free over the antenna. 

I've cut my TV expenses by 2/3rds, and have sacrificed nothing.


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## Eric

Renzatic said:


> I cut the cord about 4 years ago now, ditching Charter for DirecTV Now, moving to Youtube TV once they started getting flaky, then finally bailing on them, and sticking to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, backed up by the 30+ channels I get for free over the antenna.
> 
> I've cut my TV expenses by 2/3rds, and have sacrificed nothing.



I'm with you here, over the air offers way more than it used to. I went as far as ordering the Amazon Fire TV Recast so I can record all of my OTA content, I use it for older shows that I can't get on YTTV and with the exception of the one time purchase for the recast it's all free.


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## chagla

sling is really good. check it out.


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## Renzatic

ericgtr12 said:


> I'm with you here, over the air offers way more than it used to. I went as far as ordering the Amazon Fire TV Recast so I can record all of my OTA content, I use it for older shows that I can't get on YTTV and with the exception of the one time purchase for the recast it's all free.




It amazes me how much better over the air content is these days. Every channel I get comes in crystal clear, with only occasional interruptions when the weather's particularly bad, or my neighbor's giant dog is out bouncing off the antenna. 

I remember what it was like living out in the deep country when I was a kid, too far away from town for access to cable. We only got 3 channels semi-reliably, and even then, there were still moments when I had to run outside to adjust the antenna to get a clearer picture.

If it weren't for dad programming the VCR to bootleg movies off of HBO and Cinemax overnight when he worked at Radio Shack, I never would've had anything to watch.


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## Eric

Renzatic said:


> It amazes me how much better over the air content is these days. Every channel I get comes in crystal clear, with only occasional interruptions when the weather's particularly bad, or my neighbor's giant dog is out bouncing off the antenna.
> 
> I remember what it was like living out in the deep country when I was a kid, too far away from town for access to cable. We only got 3 channels semi-reliably, and even then, there were still moments when I had to run outside to adjust the antenna to get a clearer picture.
> 
> If it weren't for dad programming the VCR to bootleg movies off of HBO and Cinemax overnight when he worked at Radio Shack, I never would've had anything to watch.



Those late night Cinemax movies were a rite of passage for any teenager in those days.


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## JBaby

Renzatic said:


> I cut the cord about 4 years ago now, ditching Charter for DirecTV Now, moving to Youtube TV once they started getting flaky, then finally bailing on them, and sticking to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, backed up by the 30+ channels I get for free over the antenna.
> 
> I've cut my TV expenses by 2/3rds, and have sacrificed nothing.




I wish OTA was a viable option here, but it isn’t. 



ericgtr12 said:


> Those late night Cinemax movies were a rite of passage for any teenager in those days.




Skinemax and late night Showtime FTW. And HBO’s Real Sex was a thing!!! I remember watching with hardly any sound so I could hear my Mom walking by. Those were the days.

Memories
Light the corners of my mind


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## Eric

JBaby said:


> I wish OTA was a viable option here, but it isn’t.
> 
> 
> 
> Skinemax and late night Showtime FTW. And HBO’s Real Sex was a thing!!! I remember watching with hardly any sound so I could hear my Mom walking by. Those were the days.
> 
> Memories
> Light the corners of my mind



Hey, your emojis are working now! Not sure if it's something from tapatalk but they were broken before.


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## JBaby

ericgtr12 said:


> Hey, your emojis are working now! Not sure if it's something from tapatalk but they were broken before.




Wow! I didn’t even notice they were broken.


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## Renzatic

JBaby said:


> I wish OTA was a viable option here, but it isn’t.




How far out in the boondocks do you live? You should be able to get PBS at least. PBS is EVERYWHERE!



> Skinemax and late night Showtime FTW. And HBO’s Real Sex was a thing!!! I remember watching with hardly any sound so I could hear my Mom walking by. Those were the days.




That's dredging up some bad memories for me, man. Watching some half-scrambled show on Cinemax, getting all involved, then hearing the door open behind me...


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## DT

Alli said:


> I doubt we’re saving any money at this point, but it’s nice not to lose tv every time it rains. My greatest fear is that the ISPs suddenly decide they are the new version of the cable company and double their rates to cover our media consumption.




Yeah, I did some initial cost analysis, it CTC'ing was cheaper, but we've added services, some "cable" packages have come down, etc.

I've seen people toss internet costs, well, that's a fixed thing for us, and it's never been bundled, so that didn't change.  We've always had Netflix, with or without cable/sat (since 2001), we'll always have Amazon Prime for non-video perks, so that's sort of a "fixed" cost.  So without any other streaming services, that would be $0 vs. the previous cost 

Er, but of course, we do have others:  Hulu+, D+, HBOMAX, Funimation, other premium services (digital purchases here and there).  It's probably a wash[?]

Regardless, I prefer this model way more though:

1)  Our own equipment, that's better, smaller, faster, integrated with our other devices (really that means AppleTV or iPad)

2)  Ability to add/remove services on-the-fly, no calling, no terrible CSR, click, done

3)  Kind of ala carte? I mean, we don't really do network, there's always plenty to watch, hell, I could spend the next year on my Netflix backlog and be more than happy.

We do have an antenna setup, and it's routed through an HDHomeRun, so basically any device on our network can access the OTA HD signal, including AppleTVs.


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## Eric

Renzatic said:


> How far out in the boondocks do you live? You should be able to get PBS at least. PBS is EVERYWHERE!
> 
> 
> 
> That's dredging up some bad memories for me, man. Watching some half-scrambled show on Cinemax, getting all involved, then hearing the door open behind me...



Antiques Roadshow baby!


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## JBaby

Renzatic said:


> How far out in the boondocks do you live? You should be able to get PBS at least. PBS is EVERYWHERE!
> 
> 
> 
> That's dredging up some bad memories for me, man. Watching some half-scrambled show on Cinemax, getting all involved, then hearing the door open behind me...




I’m in the country surrounded by trees. The trees have to be cut back every couple of years. My Internet is fixed wireless and the antenna isn’t on my roof like you’d expect. It’s on a pole that’s on my roof and it has plenty of cable because my local ISP knows they will have to continue to put it up higher. Before it was on my roof it was on a pole in the ground. But that still wasn’t high enough. So pole the on roof is the standard out here now. I don’t have many neighbors but each of them tried to do OTA with good antennas. It just never worked. One family is still trying to make it work. The rest gave up and went back to satellite. Cable isn’t even available out here. It’s not worth it to me to even try. It may have been worth the effort if Hulu didn’t exist. 

I donate to my local PBS so my gift was transitioned into Passport. This was before they were offering Passport to everyone.


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## Eric

Renzatic said:


> That's dredging up some bad memories for me, man. Watching some half-scrambled show on Cinemax, getting all involved, then hearing the door open behind me...



Is... that a nipple... or a knee cap? Oh well, time's running out!


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## Renzatic

ericgtr12 said:


> Is... that a nipple... or a knee cap? Oh well, time's running out!




It can all be side boob, so long as you believe in yourself.



JBaby said:


> I’m in the country surrounded by trees. The trees have to be cut back every couple of years.




It doesn't sound much different from my setup. I'm not in the middle of the forest, but it is fairly woodsy. Plus, my antenna isn't mounted on my roof, but off from the house, next to a bank with a bush up above it, and a number of trees standing just beyond it. I slapped it on a 10 foot pole I had lying around (that bends slightly to the right), used the cabling from my old satellite, ran it to an amp in the basement, and split it off to two TVs.

All things considered, it's a fairly jank setup, but it works perfectly. As long as you can get the antenna up a bit, and you have a couple of stations within a 20 mile radius of your house, you should be able to get something.

edit: hell, may as well show a pic of it.

I originally intended to put it up on a 20 foot pole, but used what you're seeing here to test out the waters when I first got the antenna. It ended up working so well, I just tidied it up, and left it as is.

If I can get this to work, you should be able to do the same.


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## JBaby

Renzatic said:


> It can all be side boob, so long as you believe in yourself.
> 
> 
> 
> It doesn't sound much different from my setup. I'm not in the middle of the forest, but it is fairly woodsy. Plus, my antenna isn't mounted on my roof, but off from the house, next to a bank with a bush up above it, and a number of trees standing just beyond it. I slapped it on a 10 foot pole I had lying around (that bends slightly to the right), used the cabling from my old satellite, ran it to an amp in the basement, and split it off to two TVs.
> 
> All things considered, it's a fairly jank setup, but it works perfectly. As long as you can get the antenna up a bit, and you have a couple of stations within a 20 mile radius of your house, you should be able to get something.
> 
> edit: hell, may as well show a pic of it.
> 
> I originally expected to put it up on a 20 foot pole, but used what you're seeing here to test out the waters when I first got the antenna. It ended up working so well, I just tidied it up, and left it as is.
> 
> If I can get this to work, you should be able to do the same.
> 
> View attachment 540




Side boob! I’m so dead. 

We’re too far from stations as far as the reports say. The family still trying to make it work doesn’t believe the report. And we are surrounded by land that isn’t ours so putting it away from our house isn’t an option. We’re just happy streaming works for us. Our speeds suck though. We can only get 15Mbps down so no 4K for us. But on the plus side my ISP doesn’t have data caps. I’m keeping an eye on Starlink.


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## Renzatic

JBaby said:


> We’re too far from stations as far as the reports say.




Eh, that sucks. Guess your only hope is to wait for satellite internet to pick up a bit. Right now though, it seems like it's too much money for not enough bandwidth.


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## SuperMatt

My building gets Comcast and RCN cable and now Starry Internet if you just want internet. I get Starry and then watch tv on antenna. My T-mobile cell plan includes Netflix so I watch that too. I used to alternate between RCN and Comcast using my own HDHomeRun with cablecard and my own cable modem to avoid the equipment fees. I gave up because Comcast kept increasing “fees” above and beyond the contract price they quoted, and RCN was missing channels I wanted if I’m gonna pay for TV,


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## JBaby

Renzatic said:


> Eh, that sucks. Guess your only hope is to wait for satellite internet to pick up a bit. Right now though, it seems like it's too much money for not enough bandwidth.




I totally agree. Only one of the neighbors have it and it’s way slower than what the rest of us have. And I know they are paying way more and we pay a lot.


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## Renzatic

JBaby said:


> I totally agree. Only one of the neighbors have it and it’s way slower than what the rest of us have. And I know they are paying way more and we pay a lot.




I've heard Viasat is pretty speedy, but damn, they bend you over on those data caps.

I still wonder to this day how a scheme that has no point to it other than to rip people off for crossing an arbitrarily set limit is legal. I could understand setting a limit for peak hours for cell services, when you don't want people saturating your services, but for home based internet? It's there just to screw people out of their money.


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