Cutting the cable....can I do it?

Chicklet

Can someone please talk me off the edge?  
Seriously, I have been back and forth over the whole cable connection.  I am currently paying right at $200 per month for my cable, internet and phone bundle.  I initially thought that cutting the land line would be easy and save some money but that is only costing me about $10 monthly in my bundle and I have my home alarm set up through the land line.  
Can I just get a digital antenna and still get my local channels or should I consider just dropping my cable to the bare minimum?  I MUST have my college football games.  
I have been subscribing to Netflix and Amazon Prime for a few shows and movies, but do like just turning the TV on sometimes and watching old Friends re-runs or whatever else just happens to be on to provide some mindless viewing.  Know what I mean?  
I've just got to figure out a way to save some money!  $200 is a lot of money for some entertainment!  

m

ryantt

We went 5 years without tv and it's no biggie.   We have Amazon prime so we get "free" programming and also use Hulu.  As long as you've got good internet speed you'll be fine. 

Skiddymarker

Question is will the OTA major nets have the college ball you want? HD signals are excellent in many US urban areas and cutting the cord would not be that bad. There are even arrangements to record an OTA signal. No HBO or AMC without cable....

bob.bud

Just cut the cord last weekend. Bought HD Antennas for the TVs, I have Amazon Prime, Netflix... not sure why I have both, there are AppleTVs, and Rokus in the house, and I just paid for SlingTV. With SlingTV, you get ESPN and ESPN2, and a bunch of other stuff like the Food Channel. For an extra fee you can get the SEC Network... what else would you need for college football?

I too was paying over $200 in cable for a bunch of premium channels rarely watched, and honestly, showed the same stuff for too long. I cut that down by half, and upped my Internet speed. 

U_tarded

We did it last spring.  Over the air, coupled with a PS3 for streaming on one tv and a smart tv for the other.  We are considering sling tv for amc but I'm not jazzed to buy a roku or the like.  Been on a minimalist kick here and it's been great, we get out of the house more and go hiking or fishing instead of watching tv.

bob.bud

@ U_tarded. SlingTV will give you a Roku Stick if you pay for three months in advance. I went for it, and it appears to be working fine. In my opinion, the AMC, ESPN, Food Channel, etc for $20 bucks a month is worth the expense. However, if you have a laptop and can hook it up to your SmartTV, the Roku is not needed. Just get the SlingTV app on your laptop and your good to go.

Scottborasjr

I would so love to cut the cord but 95% of what I watch is live sports. As they continue to go to cable companies for the major events I don't know what I can do.  Although I do see in less then five years this not being a problem.

Chicklet

Skiddymarker said:

Question is will the OTA major nets have the college ball you want? HD signals are excellent in many US urban areas and cutting the cord would not be that bad. There are even arrangements to record an OTA signal. No HBO or AMC without cable....

In my area, I would only get the big three network channels.  I would really need ESPN and the SEC network.  I'm thinking about keeping the cable until the end of football season at least and then I could cut the cord maybe.  I do have Apple TV that I use for my non-smart TVs and I am considering getting a new Smart TV for at least one room. 
If I get the antenna, does that allow me to access channels on any TV in the house or what?  

bob.bud

@Skiddymarker, SlingTV does provide AMC and ESPN with their standard package, you can pay $15 more a month to get HBO through them. 

@ Chicklet, SEC is available for an additional fee through SlingTV. You can buy individual HD antennas for each TV, or put one on your roof and then split the coax and bring it to each TV. I chose the rout of individual antennas for each TV. If you google it, there are services that will let you check how far you are from the broadcast antennas to help you decide how strong (range) of an antenna you need. Google cutting the cord.

Skiddymarker

Antennas are directional, so they may need to be "rotored" for best reception. Long way of saying you may be able to watch OTA anywhere in the house, but might all have to be same channel. It is possible that all the signals are strong and you would be just fine with an inline amp to boost the signal and distribute as need be.
Sling is a good option from what I've seen of it, not available to us Canucks so must be great! 

blasting

Sports could be the sticking point.  I cut the home phone over ten years ago.  Got rid of sat. tv about 8 years ago.  Very satisfying.  I download a lot of torrents and have no commercials.

jhl192

Find someone with cable and high speed internet and offer to set up and pay for an extra cable box somewhere in their home, about $15 a month. Then buy a Singbox 350.  You can then get all of the programming they get for free each month.  You can also watch anything they have when you are anywhere a decent internet connection.  Both my kids dropped cable and Slingbox off of my house.  I also Slingbox at my summer cottage using a Amazon Firestick or directly to my iPed if I am on the road.  This drops your bill to an Internet connection plus the cost of an extra cablebox. About $65 and you get everything you used to have. 

Davec433

I wish we could cut the cord but we have another year of on contract with DirectTv. Sling box sounds like an awesome idea! I had a buddy who gotten rid of cable snd went with a tuner like the ones mentioned above and still had an ok variety of channels but not to sure in the sports.

Zaltydog

I dumped cable a few years ago.  Put a small rotational digital antenna in my attic.  I have netflix.  Good enough.  Did not miss the sports after a short time, especially after I realized how much time I was wasting taking too much interest in other peoples accomplishments.  Had more time for my own life and still have access to alot of video.

WeberWho

This is how you need to look at it: 

1st month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

2nd month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

3rd month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

4th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

5th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

6th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

Free Large Big Green Egg

7th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

8th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

9th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

10th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

11th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

12th month: High Speed Internet $50 (Saving $150)

Free Large Big Green Egg

rmercier

I cut the cord about 3 - 4 years ago. I have an OTA HD antennae that gets the local channels in glorious HD. I then pay for Hulu and Netflix which is about $16 per month. I also have an Apple TV, so i rent movies here or there (or from Redox). 

I usually pay a for a season pass through iTunes for shows that aren't available on Hulu, like The Walking Dead. That's about $40 or so....but spread that out over the course of a season, what, 4 months or so? so that's about an additional $10 a month for a total of $26 for those four months.

The ONLY time I miss cable is for non-football sports (especially during the playoffs)....but being as how I live in the DC/Northern VA area, my sports teams don't get into the playoffs that much, so.....

YukonRon

I suppose the only thing I would miss is Football. I think I would get over that pretty easily. I have a lot left to do with my life, and watching television is not real high on the bucket list. Just a matter of priorities.

bob.bud

This will be my second weekend without cable. So far, I have had no issues watching any college or pro football. ESPN has been on all morning via SlingTV keeping me company while my brisket cruised along through the stall. 

Davec433

Here's a good article from geek wire on pretty much the same thing. I can't believe how much cable has grown in price. Only issue I ever see come up is if they "throttle" you data since everyone's moving to streaming services like Netflix or just make internet that much more expensive.

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/the-xfinity-diet-how-i-slashed-my-monthly-cable-bill-and-barely-noticed-the-difference/

rifrench

No cable where I live, internet is either satellite or cell phone type thing, TV is either Direct or Dish, or you get the 3 local (Richmond) channels. BUT, no one complains about my smoke, I can shoot in the yard all I want, and hunting/fishing are on my acreage....

Focker

Cut the cord several years ago, couldn't be happier.  Bears and Cards on local Fox.  The Mohu Leaf was like $50.  We get 15-20 channels, locals for weather and bridge reports.....Create is a good channel.  I'm sure there are more options out than the Leaf by now.