# Cord Cutting 101



## sabbath9 (Dec 30, 2014)

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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

How much do you pay for internet that's fast enough to stream all that media? You certainly don't need blazing fast internet for forums and youtube but if you're going to be streaming anything in 4k my guess is you're going to have an internet bill that's at least half of what your cable bill was.


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## The Phantom Pain (Oct 6, 2010)

I personally like Sling TV over Netflix or in addition to it. There's something about media being there when I turn it on versus having to search for something new to like. 

Every time I get a Netflix sub, I usually end up watching a few blockbusters they might have and not using it for most of the month, so it ends up being a waste for me.

The only exception is when something that really peaks my interest comes to Netflix streaming like The Godfather trilogy which I've been dying to see for years. But they lose movie and TV show rights every month which is why their CEO is focusing so hard on original programming.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

I thought this was going to be about living without electricity. Living without cable TV is no big deal unless you are a TV addict.


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## tehuti88 (Jun 19, 2005)

We can't get functional Internet without cable, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


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## EggsBenedict (Dec 28, 2017)

komorikun said:


> I thought this was going to be about living without electricity. Living without cable TV is no big deal unless you are a TV addict.


I can't imagine not having any exposure to cable TV, even though I don't actively watch much TV on my own.

I don't know what else I'd be watching. American Idol or some **** like that?


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

sabbath9 said:


> We pay like $40 per month for at&t dsl modem, 40Mbps download speed which seems to be plenty for 4k streaming. But we actually use the internet everyday so unless prices go up radically due to death of net neutrality, we'll keep our dsl and our landline phone service too.
> 
> Internet is an essential but cnn definitely is not.


 So isn't that $70 for Netflix and internet?

Don't get me wrong. I suppose it DOES save money IF you're paying $150 for cable. I think when my mom had our cable turned off it was more like $50 a month and my dad watched TV all the time. Now we have slow internet, two Roku units and a computer all fighting for bandwidth.

And how much is that internet after the first year? I noticed you can get it for that price but it says "for the first year" in the fine print. How much does it go up after that first year?


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## jhinds (May 30, 2011)

I cut the cord years ago and lowered my internet to TWC's "lite" tier (3 down / 1 up) which costs me only $25/mo (Modem rental included. Darn it, should have bought my own modem while TWC was still the provider and save another $10/mo). After Charter bought out TWC my plan got grandfathered in and so far they haven't forced me to upgrade. I can stream Netflix at only 720p, but that's good enough for me. OTA reception is spotty because I live among tall buildings that block the signals from most towers. Oh well, for $37/mo (Internet + Netflix + Amazon Prime) it's enough for me.


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## Kinable (Apr 25, 2013)

I can watch any show, any episode, any time I want. No need for cable or live TV. Haven't actually sat down to watch live TV since 2009 when it started to go downhill. I still watch new shows, just not on live TV.


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## The Phantom Pain (Oct 6, 2010)

Kinable said:


> I can watch any show, any episode, any time I want. No need for cable or live TV. Haven't actually sat down to watch live TV since 2009 when it started to go downhill. I still watch new shows, just not on live TV.


It's funny you pick 2009 since that was the year of the digital conversion.

I honestly think that ruined network television. The adoption rate went from nearly 100% of the nation to less than 1/3. And TV has been declining as a medium ever since.


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## andretti (Jan 2, 2016)

I cut the cord last year. Save about 50 bucks a month. 
Internet is 70 a month for 100mbps with no data caps.
Sling TV is 30. I use my sisters Hulu and Netflix accounts so it's free. I don't ever watch TV . Don't miss it at all .
. All I watch is the sports broadcast so the sling has me covered. 
Then I have my firestick with terrium tv so all the movies or shows I want to watch that aren't on Netflix are free so im good.


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## Kinable (Apr 25, 2013)

The Phantom Pain said:


> It's funny you pick 2009 since that was the year of the digital conversion.
> 
> I honestly think that ruined network television. The adoption rate went from nearly 100% of the nation to less than 1/3. And TV has been declining as a medium ever since.


Huh, no wonder I feel TV started going downhill then. I also just found YouTube and the internet in general to be more entertaining than TV. Nowadays they both kind of suck and I have to keep finding something good to watch.


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## Lonelyguy (Nov 8, 2003)

I don't watch much TV so I've never paid for it. Since I live in a rural area a dish is my only alternative to cable but all I've ever had is antenna TV. I have Netflix too but I'm thinking of cancelling it. I only watch it a couple of times a month and they removed all of my favorite shows so there's not much left that interests me.


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## MCHB (Jan 1, 2013)

Unless you enjoy having adverts rammed down your throat you're not gonna miss cable!


Basically Cable TV is the facehugger of society....


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## CAMKY89 (Feb 5, 2017)

Haven't used cable in years. Between bit torrent and Netflix I get what I want.


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## rabidfoxes (Apr 17, 2016)

I've only ever had TV in my house when other people wanted it. It's fun to lie on the sofa and watch all that junk when I am in a hotel room or visiting my parents, but I can't imagine paying to have it in my house. One moment you think you're going to watch all these quality shows and keep up with the news, the next you're lying on a crushed beer can watching reality TV about real estate buying in Spain. It's a trap.


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## Karsten (Apr 3, 2007)

sabbath9 said:


> no more kard*****ians


:lol


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

rabidfoxes said:


> I've only ever had TV in my house when other people wanted it. It's fun to lie on the sofa and watch all that junk when I am in a hotel room or visiting my parents, but I can't imagine paying to have it in my house. One moment you think you're going to watch all these quality shows and keep up with the news, the next you're lying on a crushed beer can watching reality TV about real estate buying in Spain. It's a trap.


The only real issue I see with it is the fact that it just costs so damn much. If the payments were more reasonable it wouldn't be so bad. Really all I'd want is news and weather channels, local channels and the option to get more popular content cheap (or free) with on demand.

When my mom finally cheaped out and got rid of the cable, I think she said the bill was like 60 bucks a month. Which was kind of ridiculous even though we were getting a fair amount of channels and so forth (including the on demand option). I mean 60 bucks a month is pretty insane. Our entire utility bill probably isn't much more than that.

The stupid thing about that though was that my dad actually did use the cable all day every day so it wasn't really an extra expense for something no one was using. And it is nice to have news and weather in that format so you can keep up with things in a passive way instead of having to search for it and so forth. When we had cable, my dad watched the news and weather channels constantly. Now he gets on the Roku and starts watching those crazy people who don't know what they're talking about.


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## rabidfoxes (Apr 17, 2016)

@WillYouStopDave > I agree that it's nice to pick up news and weather passively, but I prefer the radio. I've got an ancient (i.e. non-digital) radio alarm that switches on at 8am and gives me a 5-minute news roundup with the weather forecast. It's pretty ideal. But then maybe it's because I have poor self control when watching TV and can't cope with intrusive advertising, it just drives me into a rage (I've got a local BBC station so no ads).


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## Maslow (Dec 24, 2003)

We get basic cable, Showtime, and broadband for like $45/month through Comcast. Our cable isn't HD, so we never use it. It's probably been two years since we watched anything on cable. We have an antenna for OTA broadcasts. Everything else, we stream through our Roku player -- YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime video, mainly.


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

I've never had cable and spend $0 on streaming services. There's more than enough free entertainment out there to fill the time of even someone as unoccupied as I am.


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## That Random Guy (Jan 31, 2015)

*Awesome!*

Well done!

I acquired an antenna as well. I was able to get a Japanese News outlet about 2 years ago but they stopped broadcasting for some reason.

After getting a FireTV, I was able to get them back since they offer an app to watch their public stream.

I agree! Much cheaper to just buy Netflix or Hulu. The only reason my father sticks with cable is to make sure my mother has something to watch.


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