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Is TV Over the 'Net Really Cheaper Than Cable?
jfruh writes "More and more people are joining the ranks of 'cord-cutters' — those who cancel their cable TV subscriptions and get their televisied entertainment either for free over the airwaves or over the Internet. But, assuming you're going to do things legally, is this really a cheaper option? It depends on what you watch. Brian Proffitt contemplated this move, and he walks you through the calculations he made to figure out the prices of cutting the cord. He weighed the costs of various a la carte and all-you-can-eat Internet streaming services, and took into account the fact that Internet service on its own is often pricier than it would be if bundled with cable TV."
My ISP still gives me the "all you can eat" unlimited transfer per month. They are a DSL offering, bundled with landline telephone.
I cut the cord years ago. I work secnd shift, and the only thing on cable that late is porn, informercials, and shit like ancient aliens.
Streaming let's me pick what I want to watch, at the times I want to watch it. For me, the choice is clear.
...and got a divide by zero error. I kept cable internet and dropped cable TV service for a year. I reconnected last night. 1000 channels including HD service. Searching for "Nova" returned no instances of the PBS show; if I want to watch my favorite show, I still need to buy it from iTunes and download it. Jury is still out on the other reason I dropped cable TV; I want to watch WWE Summer Slam in HD, live when it broadcasts (not three months later on DVD). It's not showing up in the listing yet; I'll try again two weeks prior to the event. Haven't tried to find a 2012 BBC Top Gear; had to 'torrent last winter's shows because they won't even sell those to us yanks. The funny thing is, Comcast never asked why I dropped TV service in the first place.
I already need high speed internet so that's not really an additional expense since it wasn't through a cable company, none in my area. I did the math and I figured I could get somewhere between 50 and 75 movies and 20 and 25 TV series seasons on DVD or download for what my cable was costing. This is far more than I actually watch. Throw in Netflix Streaming which sucks for selection as in not much current but a ton of old and obscure which I like and I really have no need for satellite or cable. The Dish/AMC fight was the end for me. I already buy Walking Dead on Blu-Ray and they cut AMC anyway so I see no need to have Dish. Direct is almost as bad. I may be a season behind but most of the stuff I watch I'll own and I tend to watch stuff multiple times. Most of the stuff on Netflix is HD where as cable is all highly compressed HD which looks like crap. Alot of it is blown up cropped as well. If they offer Ala Carte streaming I'll consider buying AMC and a few of the movie channels, things like HBO for Game of Thrones and Newsroom. At this stage I have zero interest in ever having cable again.
If children are involved, you can stream as low as 300 kbit/s (like I do) and they won't care. That's about equal to VHS or youtube-360p in quality.
I watch about 2 hours a day... 8 on weekends. So that's 16+2*5 == 26 per week or 111 for the month. 250GB/111 hours == 5 Mbit/s. Most streams don't come anywhere near that amount so I'd not worry about going over the limit. And just to be sure I'd watch everything in SD (which is what comcast cable serves anyway).
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Same here, I even subscribed to Amazon Prime because I saved money on shipping. With the simplicity of using a Roku, and the ability to watch your shows on your Laptop or iPod/Android, it's a wonder Cable Providers still have subscribers.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
My daughter summed it up best in a tweet to her friends: (paraphrase)
"wow, now the television doesn't tell me what I want to watch, I tell *it* what I want to watch". Unfortunately, she skewed my Netflix preferences so now I have a bunch of 'one-tree-hormoneville' shows suggested to me...
AND my son has his pick of whatever anime he could ever desire.
It takes a little time to adjust (you can't just plop in front of the tv and turn it on for 'whatever'), but everyone I show it to loves it. And I save US$60 a month!
Other than the quality of my OTA channels going down (a problem I had for awhile with DTV as well), I haven't missed my sat/cable stuff.
However, it DID take me over a week of arguing with the satellite company to get it disconnected. (go ahead...ask me about it...please...).
If children are involved, you can stream as low as 300 kbit/s (like I do) and they won't care. That's about equal to VHS or youtube-360p in quality.
I watch about 2 hours a day... 8 on weekends. So that's 16+2*5 == 26 per week or 111 for the month. 250GB/111 hours == 5 Mbit/s. Most streams don't come anywhere near that amount so I'd not worry about going over the limit. And just to be sure I'd watch everything in SD (which is what comcast cable serves anyway).
All you'd do with your internet connection is watch TV?
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What I admit is that there is no way on fucking Earth I would every pay for it ever again.
Just one simple realization.
I'm paying over $100 per month for a company to sell my ass like meat to the advertisers.
If I am going to bend over and get fucked on a regular basis, I'm sure as hell not going to smile and hand over my money while they do it. All that "quality" programming infected with commercial advertisements everywhere is not anywhere near the definition of a reacharound.
Add to this the further realization that these companies are suing with twisted logic like skipping commercials is theft & copyright infringement (both). So that the same time they want me to be a paying customer each month, they hate me and treat me like a dirty criminal and lobby for laws to progressively eliminate any semblance of choice and free will in my home.
I wish I figured that out sooner instead of spending nearly 10 years paying exorbitant fees to these ass clowns.
Cut the cord nearly 10 years ago now and I don't care how expensive they make the Internet. I'm only going to spend up to $100 per month on it, and it will include everything. Period. Otherwise, I will just go without.
Hard drives are getting bigger all the time. I can download 1 or 2 shows and just arrange get togethers with friends on the weekends to sync up hard drives. Say hello to the sneakernets again.