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Ditching cable

Tad Footeball said:
Again, that's a dozen games.

How did you watch the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA Hoops and The Masters? And pay for a Netflix subscription? And separate wifi service (as that's usually severely discounted when bundled with cable or satellite)?

Hey, if you guys are able to do it cheaply and with less aggravation than me just paying DirectTV every month then more power to you. All I know, is that everytime I end up a cordcutters house and want to watch a sporting event unannounced that it turns into them suggesting we just hit up the closest Ale House instead.

Not to get too big picture here, but we'll probably be having a similar debate regarding vehicle ownership within a decade max. "Hey old man, stop wasting money on that personal use car! Autonomous rideshare vehicles are sooooo much cheaper over the course of a year!"
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I really don't think you understand what cord cutting is now a days. Services like Directv Now, SlingTV, and Youtube TV are just TV providers that stream their product. I get all the local channels, all ESPN channels, NBA TV, MLB TV, SEC Network, Big 10 Network, all the fox sports and NBC sports networks which carries NHL, and the Golf Channel. I watched the Masters on the Golf Channel and then NBC when it switched. For the non-national ESPN games, you can just pull up the ESPN App on your TV for every NCAA football, basketball, baseball game, track, lacrosse, field hockey game they carry. Honestly, I probably have more sports access than you.

I had Directv and Comcast for my ISP so I was not getting a discount. If you have AT&T for your ISP, they usually offer discounts on Directv Now.
 
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HTXCane said:
I really don't think you understand what cord cutting is now a days. Services like Directv Now, SlingTV, and Youtube TV are just TV providers that stream their product. I get all the local channels, all ESPN channels, NBA TV, MLB TV, SEC Network, Big 10 Network, all the fox sports and NBC sports networks which carries NHL, and the Golf Channel. I watched the Masters on the Golf Channel and then NBC when it switched. For the non-national ESPN games, you can just pull up the ESPN App on your TV for every NCAA football, basketball, baseball game, track, lacrosse, field hockey game they carry. Honestly, I probably have more sports access than you.

I had Directv and Comcast for my ISP so I was not getting a discount. If you have AT&T for your ISP, they usually offer discounts on Directv Now.
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DTV Now through ATAT is great... It boils down to ensuring you have the proper bandwidth for streaming and/or direct connecting your apple tv/ roku through a cat6 cable. I have almost zero streaming interruption now and over the past 16 months. Not only am I getting about 100 channels, DTV finally has local primary stations for Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS. Only thing missing is the NFL package, but I can pay for a portion of my friends and watch the games on Sunday.
 
Loose Cannon said:
Without getting too political on a sports board, I'm going to present the insider take while trying to remain as relevant to the topic at hand as possible. The proponents of net neutrality--horrible name by the way--would like for people to forget that Telcos were heavily regulated from 1934 to 1996.

This was what a telephone roughly looked like circa 1934. It came in one color and you rented it from the phone company.
View attachment 59346
This is what a phone looked like in 1996. You could get it in black or beige, but it still came from the telephone company and you had to rent it.
View attachment 59347

62 years and literally the only innovation was dual tone multi frequency technology that allowed for digital switching. Literally every innovation between what you see above and the iPhone in your hand has happened since the government regulation of the telecommunications industry ended in 1996.

Net Neutrality is a made up term to combat a problem that doesn't exist and it is pushed by the Telco giants like AT&T in order to stifle competition.
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I feel this is a bit revisionist of history. Not sure on all points but the points that I do know appear to be revised in this so it leads me to believe other parts might be as well.

"Tone dialing telephones are introduced, November 18, 1963. On this day in tech history, the Bell System introduced the first electronic push-button telephone system with touch-tone dialing to customers in Pennsylvania. "

Your statement leads to be believed everyone was using rotary dialing until 1996. That would be 33 years after touch tone was introduced.

Also I know that at least as far back as the 1980s you bought your own phone. There might be an option to get/rent/buy from the phone company but I know you could go into a store and get a phone. The 80s and 90s had various neon phones that were popular. I am sure stores offered different phones that were not through the phone company before this as well. Though I did not do the research on that.

The innovations came with from the use of internet and cell phones. So it came with competition outside the traditional market. Also as others have said it was a government support monopoly so no competition for all those years means no need to really innovate. Though I would personally be surprised if any innovation has been done to actual hard phone lines besides maybe bumping up speeds to compete with cable and fiber modems.
 
PanteraCanes said:
I feel this is a bit revisionist of history. Not sure on all points but the points that I do know appear to be revised in this so it leads me to believe other parts might be as well.

"Tone dialing telephones are introduced, November 18, 1963. On this day in tech history, the Bell System introduced the first electronic push-button telephone system with touch-tone dialing to customers in Pennsylvania. "

Your statement leads to be believed everyone was using rotary dialing until 1996. That would be 33 years after touch tone was introduced.

Also I know that at least as far back as the 1980s you bought your own phone. There might be an option to get/rent/buy from the phone company but I know you could go into a store and get a phone. The 80s and 90s had various neon phones that were popular. I am sure stores offered different phones that were not through the phone company before this as well. Though I did not do the research on that.

The innovations came with from the use of internet and cell phones. So it came with competition outside the traditional market. Also as others have said it was a government support monopoly so no competition for all those years means no need to really innovate. Though I would personally be surprised if any innovation has been done to actual hard phone lines besides maybe bumping up speeds to compete with cable and fiber modems.
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No. That's not what I was trying to say at all. Sorry if it came off that way. The point I was trying to make is that between 32 and 96, tone dialing--which permitted digital switching (another link tying data networking to traditional telephony)--was one of the very few innovations. Strict regulation makes it very difficult to take a product from the lab into mass production. Was the internet technically invented prior to deregulation. Yes if you consider a 28.8Kb/s dial up access to a mere 100,000 web pages available to about 17% of the US...or if you consider cellular service a bag you carry around with you so you can climb to the top of a tree, hold one leg in the air and maybe make a phone call only to find out you got charged $300 worth in roaming fees cell service...There is no question that the vast bulk of innovation of telephony, data, and converged networks has occurred after the companies had the massive burden of regulation removed in the 90's.
 
HTXCane said:
What do you feel like you would be sacrificing? I haven’t lost anything and went from $190 to $35 per month.
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Well without using another paying cable customer's login for ESPN or other apps, between paying for internet and paying for a cable alternative to view the channels and games my wife an I want to watch, I've found it'll come out to around $140 or so a month. I pay that now, plus DVR. I think DVR functionality (being able to keep shows as long as I'd like too) and On-Demand content are the biggest that I use regularly but wouldn't have or wouldn't have at the same level with a cable alternative. I'd love to have an a la carte cable option, as would almost everyone, but I don't see any major cable companies doing that anytime soon.

How were you able to get down from $190 to $35? That's quite a savings. Does that $35 include internet?
 
HTXCane said:
I really don't think you understand what cord cutting is now a days. Services like Directv Now, SlingTV, and Youtube TV are just TV providers that stream their product. I get all the local channels, all ESPN channels, NBA TV, MLB TV, SEC Network, Big 10 Network, all the fox sports and NBC sports networks which carries NHL, and the Golf Channel. I watched the Masters on the Golf Channel and then NBC when it switched. For the non-national ESPN games, you can just pull up the ESPN App on your TV for every NCAA football, basketball, baseball game, track, lacrosse, field hockey game they carry. Honestly, I probably have more sports access than you.

I had Directv and Comcast for my ISP so I was not getting a discount. If you have AT&T for your ISP, they usually offer discounts on Directv Now.
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I understand exactly what it is but you're listing multiple subscription services. To get 100 channels and the sports that you're mentioning on DirecTV Now alone you're coming in at least a $60 monthly base before any taxes, etc. I pay like $110/mos to DirecTV for what I'm sure is more sports access than you as I've managed to get Sunday Ticket for free for the last 5 years plus that includes internet AND 175 channels.

Also, let's say you live in South Florida. Are you also getting the Fox Sports SUN channels for Heat regular season games and/or those weird channels where they bury Canes hoops sometimes?
 
Cut the cord.

I have 50mbps Comcast internet and have netflix, amazon prime and HBO - for sporting events, there are many options (depending on your LOC) but you can try Reddit CFB live streams.
 
Tad Footeball said:
I understand exactly what it is but you're listing multiple subscription services. To get 100 channels and the sports that you're mentioning on DirecTV Now alone you're coming in at least a $60 monthly base before any taxes, etc. I pay like $110/mos to DirecTV for what I'm sure is more sports access than you as I've managed to get Sunday Ticket for free for the last 5 years plus that includes internet AND 175 channels.

Also, let's say you live in South Florida. Are you also getting the Fox Sports SUN channels for Heat regular season games and/or those weird channels where they bury Canes hoops sometimes?
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Everything I listed is under my Youtube TV sub that I pay $35/mth for. I live in Texas so I get Fox Southwest but you would get Fox Sun for South Florida. This is just a snapshot of the ESPN/Fox Sports Channels I can watch right now. Below this is NBC/Golf, NBA TV, CBS Sports, etc. Also the rest of the Cable/News/Local Channels are in this list.

1523571199305.webp
 
Tad Footeball said:
Again, that's a dozen games.

How did you watch the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA Hoops and The Masters? And pay for a Netflix subscription? And separate wifi service (as that's usually severely discounted when bundled with cable or satellite)?

Hey, if you guys are able to do it cheaply and with less aggravation than me just paying DirectTV every month then more power to you. All I know, is that everytime I end up a cordcutters house and want to watch a sporting event unannounced that it turns into them suggesting we just hit up the closest Ale House instead.

Not to get too big picture here, but we'll probably be having a similar debate regarding vehicle ownership within a decade max. "Hey old man, stop wasting money on that personal use car! Autonomous rideshare vehicles are sooooo much cheaper over the course of a year!"
Click to expand...

I would love autonomous ride share vehicles if it was worth the price!
 
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d--1 said:
Well without using another paying cable customer's login for ESPN or other apps, between paying for internet and paying for a cable alternative to view the channels and games my wife an I want to watch, I've found it'll come out to around $140 or so a month. I pay that now, plus DVR. I think DVR functionality (being able to keep shows as long as I'd like too) and On-Demand content are the biggest that I use regularly but wouldn't have or wouldn't have at the same level with a cable alternative. I'd love to have an a la carte cable option, as would almost everyone, but I don't see any major cable companies doing that anytime soon.

How were you able to get down from $190 to $35? That's quite a savings. Does that $35 include internet?
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All the screaming services have access to the ESPN App. I have Comcast for my ISP so the $190 is not counting internet. I pay about $80 per month for internet. I was coming off my promo deal for Directv and it shot up to the $190. I got them down to about $90 but why pay $90 when I can get the same channels I want for $35? YouTube TV has DVR and On-Demand content also.
 
So any good service for getting the games in Tampa? (ie: I can't go with local channels as they will never have it)
 
I was wondering if anyone has used ESPN+ ?

I just want to know how it works with using it like a DVR...can I start watching a game that is in progress from the start...do I have to wait until the game is over and uploaded to their servers so I can watch it the next day? I don't always get to watch the game when it starts...so I DVR it and watch from the beginning and FFW through the commercials until I catch up to it being live....is that something I could accomplish on any of these non traditional methods?

I have DTV right now...and it is batsh1t expensive. But it's the only option in my area with a solid whole home DVR...and without that...my family would not be able to coexist at this point
 
I have Sling TV ($25) with the $5 sports package. Pretty much get everything not on local channels.
 
I'm actually using Direct TV Now with a VPN on my laptop. I get all of the South Florida channels here in NY so I can watch all of the Dolphins and Canes game. The only thing is the VPN doesn't work on my cellphone bc the Direct TV app asks for my location of my phone and if I deny it, it won't let me stream.
 
Was paying over 150 for Directv recently cut the cord and have Hulu plus for 45 bucks a month. Have had very little issues and still get most of the channels I watch mostly sports and use my moms directv login to watch anything I don’t get through Hulu.
 
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holdnorth said:
With so many internet TV options I decide to rid myself of Cable TV. Are you guys able to view Watch ESPN with internet subscription only?
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I cut the cord back in '09 believe it or not. Saved a lot of money but know this: every now and then, you will have to run to the local bar to catch the Canes play because (A) the game won't be on anywhere but cable (not so much now as before, especially because we are relevant again) or (B) the game will be on but the streaming will be choppy or otherwise problematic causing you to want to hurl objects at your at and/or significant other. If you can live with that, you will be fine.
 
Buy a stream smart box. Get loca channels for anywhere in America and get all of the games for any team ESPN, local channels, fox sports, ABC.
 
@KingLew88 said:
Cut the cord bro.

I saved $230 a month and stil can watch whatever I want
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How do you watch everything you want? I think that is the question he’s asking? I still have Directv for this vary reason. I need ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC, fox sports, sunsports, CBSSports and local. I have AppleTv and get the ESPN App but you’re u need cable or Sat login how do you get around this without having those services?
 
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