Yeah, 80 bucks would be much easier to live with than $200 (or even $150 which is about where I am right now).
Who has totally left major tv providers?
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I cut the cord again a couple weeks ago. A few years back I canceled Dish and went streaming only. After about a year I added a TiVo Roamio 4 tuner with lifetime for OTA recording. Eventually Charter sent me a double play option that was too good to pass up so I got a CableCard for my Tivo and added a TiVo mini for a second room.
It's been a couple years and my double play price got up to $118. This still isn't terrible considering I have 100Mbps internet and the TV package came with pretty much everything, including HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. Still I looked at my Tivo's to do list and noticed that every single thing set to record in the next 2 weeks was on channels I can get OTA. I decided it was time to say goodbye to cable again even if I was getting a pretty good deal.
It's been 2-3 weeks now and I haven't even really noticed that the cable is missing yet. Of course, I already said all the shows that were scheduled to record in that time were available OTA so I guess I wouldn't. I've also been streaming Netflix and Amazon Prime content more than watching anything through my Tivo over the last few months.
I will be signing up for one of these TV services at least temporarily this spring though. I'm not sure which one it will be yet but I will want TBS, TNT, and TruTV for March Madness. I will also want AMC and FX this April for Better Call Saul and Legion. Lastly, I will want Fox Sports Detroit to watch the Tigers when the MLB season opens up. If they perform the way they did last year this won't be a requirement for very long though.
It looks like Sling Blue + the DVR add-on or YoutubeTV will be the cheapest options to get everything I want and both of them are available on my Rokus. I think these TV services will be something I sign up for periodically for specific reasons instead of something I just keep active at all times like I did with cable.
Edit: I don't know why I thought it did but it looks like YoutubeTV is missing TBS, TNT, and TruTV. They might still be an option at other times during the year but it looks like Sling Blue + DVR for $30 will be a better option during March Madness.
It's been a couple years and my double play price got up to $118. This still isn't terrible considering I have 100Mbps internet and the TV package came with pretty much everything, including HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. Still I looked at my Tivo's to do list and noticed that every single thing set to record in the next 2 weeks was on channels I can get OTA. I decided it was time to say goodbye to cable again even if I was getting a pretty good deal.
It's been 2-3 weeks now and I haven't even really noticed that the cable is missing yet. Of course, I already said all the shows that were scheduled to record in that time were available OTA so I guess I wouldn't. I've also been streaming Netflix and Amazon Prime content more than watching anything through my Tivo over the last few months.
I will be signing up for one of these TV services at least temporarily this spring though. I'm not sure which one it will be yet but I will want TBS, TNT, and TruTV for March Madness. I will also want AMC and FX this April for Better Call Saul and Legion. Lastly, I will want Fox Sports Detroit to watch the Tigers when the MLB season opens up. If they perform the way they did last year this won't be a requirement for very long though.
It looks like Sling Blue + the DVR add-on or YoutubeTV will be the cheapest options to get everything I want and both of them are available on my Rokus. I think these TV services will be something I sign up for periodically for specific reasons instead of something I just keep active at all times like I did with cable.
Edit: I don't know why I thought it did but it looks like YoutubeTV is missing TBS, TNT, and TruTV. They might still be an option at other times during the year but it looks like Sling Blue + DVR for $30 will be a better option during March Madness.
Sling Blue will work for you if you don't need the ESPN channels. But it sounds like sports are a big reason you would like one of these OTT live TV services. PlayStation Vue's Core plan for $45 a month would give you all the sports channels, your RSN, and DVR service. Sling Blue plus Orange plus sports add-on plus DVR would cost more. Although DVR is free for Roku with Sling.
I do watch ESPN but mostly during football season. All I would really be missing in the spring and summer would be the Sunday night baseball games. MLB.TV gives me more than enough baseball each season though.
I did the same last Summer, almost all our stuff was OTA and I already had a Tivo Roamio basic.
Wait 1 month, and Charter/Spectrum will start calling you 5 times a day, 6 days a week trying to get you to take a deal. A deal they wouldn't give you to keep you in the first place. Not only that, but if you don't pick up, they will call from various different phone numbers (but Google tells the truth) trying to trick you to pick up and talk to them. They will NOT leave a message on your vmx. If you never pick up, they might stop for a week or so, then start up again. Oh, and lets not forget the non-stop snail-mail letters you will also get from them touting their $19.95 (+$8.80 local channels) streaming choice that basically is worthless, and the Roku app corrupts frequently and has to be purged and reloaded.
Yeah, even if they offered me the deal that got me to sign up for their double play in the first place I'm not sure I would sign up. I don't have anything bad to say about Charter's TV service. It was extremely reliable and offered pretty much everything including premiums and bundled with 100Mbps internet for $10 more than I was paying Dish for AT200 TV service alone. It also worked great with my Tivo system.
I really don't have any complaints for them. I just have very little that I watch on cable channels and with a few exceptions I'm far enough behind on most cable shows that they come to Amazon Prime or Netflix before I get around to watching them anyways.
I think a cheap streaming package channel package that I can turn on and off as needed for specific TV shows and sports seasons just makes more sense right now. Sure I want TBS, TNT, and TruTV for the month or so that they show March Madness games but I have no use for them the rest of the year.
Right now my Charter bill is about $60 less than I was paying a month or two ago now that I canceled the TV portion. I figure I will still come out ahead if I sign up for Sling, Vue, or YoutubeTV at various times of the year.
Don't forget you also get EPIX FREE with their internet-only. It has some worthwhile stuff on it, (old horror movies also, like the ones on Comet) and you can log into it through your Tivo. You need a Charter email address, so sign up for a free one if you don't already have one.
EPIX Frequently Asked Questions
Yeah, I have a Charter.net email account specifically so I could log in to things like HBO Go, Fox Sports Go, and WatchESPN when I was a TV customer. I think I remember reading about the EPIX stuff in the past but I never paid much attention to it since all the EPIX movies come to Amazon Prime after a delay. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to grab the EPIX app for my Rokus though.
I keep the bare minimum package with Dish (Welcome Pack) + HBO. For now. We have tons and tons of movies and TV series recorded on the DVR that I don't want to lose. Also, HBO through Dish is cheaper than HBO internet-only, and I can use my Dish credentials for HBO Go. I also have OTA guide integration with my Hopper. To me, that's worth $35 a month. Now, if Dish continues to purge valuable channels from Welcome Pack, I may re-evaluate my stance. But for now, I think it's very worthwhile. Plus, we have a Sling TV sub at my office that I can use for the missing channels I don't get on Dish.
I could see myself being only Netflix + OTA + CBS All Access in the future. I find myself watching more and more OTA, especially as stations add subnets. I especially like The Country Network, Get TV, Heartland, and TBD (I know, I know, don't make fun of me!)
Now as for my 14-year-old daughter, she only cares about Netflix and the occasional show on her Freeform Go app. She is perfectly content watching all video on her iPhone 7+ even though she has a 48-inch TV in her room. What does she do with the TV? She connects her iPhone to it via HDMI adapter and streams Youtube. That's about it.
Kids use video so vastly different from older users. Makes me wonder if her generation will even buy TV's when they get older.
I could see myself being only Netflix + OTA + CBS All Access in the future. I find myself watching more and more OTA, especially as stations add subnets. I especially like The Country Network, Get TV, Heartland, and TBD (I know, I know, don't make fun of me!)
Now as for my 14-year-old daughter, she only cares about Netflix and the occasional show on her Freeform Go app. She is perfectly content watching all video on her iPhone 7+ even though she has a 48-inch TV in her room. What does she do with the TV? She connects her iPhone to it via HDMI adapter and streams Youtube. That's about it.
Kids use video so vastly different from older users. Makes me wonder if her generation will even buy TV's when they get older.
Dish is good at taking channels that everyone wants, splitting them up hopeing to force you into taking the next tier of channels. I remember when the Encore Westerns/Starz channels were included for one price. In order to keep them together, you could not cancel them else you'd be charges separately for them. When they weren't getting enough people canceling them, they started shutting them off and reactivating them, making the customer pay separate subscription fees for both packages.
I had customers calling us everyday raising hell over what had happened, swearing they had not canceled them. After contacting retail services, one lady explained, at the risk of her job, that Dish had taken it upon themselves to shut their channels off, and reactivating them to make more money off the split packages. It was a dirty trick on Dish's part that cost them several customers who refused to pay the differences.
We finally had enough and closed the business after 30 years, and I eventually did away with Dish and DirecTV and went to FTA. Now the damned commercials are so bad, I'd have a hissy fit I had to pay for cable or satellite over the commercials. I still cuss the commercials, but at least now, I'm not paying for them.
- Nov 29, 2003
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When we had Comcast I only had two boxes ( hated paying that lease fee) , in the kid's bedrooms all they had was Rokus, so Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, You Tube
Now we have Vue, every room can get Live TV with no lease fee, what do the kids watch-Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, You Tube, that is all they care about and to be honest myself included, if not for Food Network that my wife loves watching, I could give up live TV.
From a sports perspective on viewing the Tigers, it will be a long season....though if you want to watch the future players then you may want to catch them
From a sports perspective on viewing the Tigers, it will be a long season....though if you want to watch the future players then you may want to catch them
I use MLB.tv for baseball, because I can’t stand the TV announcers for FS-M. With MLB.tv you can switch to radio broadcast audio overlay or even just an open ballpark MIC with no commentary. I can’t stand the endless mindless blabber from the TV guys. Especially poor old Tim McCarver. He’s a nice guy but I think he’s losing his mind
This was one of my biggest pet peeves with cable TV: that I'd have to pay for some $10/mo. channel tier to get one or two channels I was interested in. For example, I paid for the $10 Sports and Info tier that included ESPNU, NFL Network, MLB TV, etc., but if I wanted the Tennis Channel, I had to subscribe to the $10/mo. Lifestyles tier. Or I had to subscribe to the Variety tier, another $10, to get BBC America when I couldn't care less about all the kids channels that made up the rest of that tier.
That's one of the things I like about OTT live TV skinny bundle packages like PS Vue and YouTube TV, where I can get those aforementioned exclusive tier channels in their base package, while I steer clear of services like Sling, where I run into a similar situation as cable where I'd have to spend $30-$40 for add-ons to get a couple of channels I want not included in the base package.
I wish there was an option for all sports broadcasts to have open ballpark mike only. I remember, back in 1980, that NBC had a Saturday Night game that had no announcers. It was pure bliss... These people who get paid by the word drive me crazy.I use MLB.tv for baseball, because I can’t stand the TV announcers for FS-M. With MLB.tv you can switch to radio broadcast audio overlay or even just an open ballpark MIC with no commentary. I can’t stand the endless mindless blabber from the TV guys. Especially poor old Tim McCarver. He’s a nice guy but I think he’s losing his mind
I was barely a year old in 1980, but I will say I agree with you that being able to listen to an open MIC is pure bliss compared to mindless color commentary!
I graduated from High School in 1980 and turned 18 in July of that year. God
I feel old now.
